UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
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THE  BROSS  LIBRARY 

VOLUME   XI 


THE  BROSS  LIBRARY 


THE  BIBLE;  ITS  ORIGIN  AND  NATURE 

Rev.  Marcus  Dods,  D.D. 

THE  BIBLE  OF  NATURE.  J.  Arthur  Thomson,  M.A. 

THE  RELIGIONS  OF  MODERN  SYRIA  AND 

PALESTINE.  Frederick  J.  Bliss.  Ph.D. 

THE  SOURCES  OF  RELIGIOUS  mSIGHT 

Josiah  Royce 

THE  WILL  TO  FREEDOM,  or  the  Gospel  of 
Nietsche  and  the  Gospel  of  Christ 

Rev.  John  Neville  Figgis,  D.D. 

FAITH  JUSTIFIED  BY  PROGRESS 

H.  W.  Wright.  Ph.D. 
BIBLE  AND  SPADE 

John  P.  Peters,  Ph.D.,  Sc.D.,  D.D. 

CHRISTIANlTr  AND  PROBLEMS  OF  TO-DAY 

By  Various  Authors 

BROSS  PRIZE  VOLUMES 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

James  Orr,  D.D. 

THE  MYTHICAL  INTERPRETATION  OF  THE 
GOSPELS.    Rev.  Thomas  James  Thorburn,  D.D. 


THE    BROSS    LECTURES     .     .     1921 

CHRISTIANITY  AND 
PROBLEMS  OF  TO-DAY 


LECTURES    DELIVERED    BEFORE 

LAKE  FOREST  COLLEGE 

ON    THE    FOUNDATION    OF    THE    LATE 

WILLIAM  BROSS 


CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 
NEW   YORK      ....      1922 


COPTBIGHT,    1922,    BT 

THE  TRUSTEES  OF  LAKE  FOREST   UNIVERSITY 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


Publislied  September,  1922 


\ 


v# 


1 


THE  ADDRESSES  IN  THIS  VOLUME   WERE  DELIVERED  AT 

\  LAKE    FOREST    COLLEGE 

"^ 

lA  NOVEMBER  THIRD  TO   SIXTH 

V 

X  ON  THE   OCCASION    OP  THE   INAUGURATION  OF 


HERBERT   McCOMB   MOORE 

AS   PRESIDENT  OP 

LAKE    FOREST    UNIVERSITY 


17'G1U8 


CONTENTS 

PAQB 

From  Generation  to  Generation 1 

by  john  huston  finley,  ll.d.,  l.h.d. 

Jesus'  Social  Plan 27 

by  charles  foster  kent,  ph.d.,  litt.d. 

Personal  Religion  and  Pubuc  Morals    ...       47 
by  robert  bruce  taylor,  d.d.,  ll.d. 

Religion  and  Social  Discontent 75 

by  paul  elmer  more,  litt.d.,  ll.d. 

The  Teachings  of  Jesus  as  Factors  in  Inter- 
national Politics,  with  Especial  Reference 
TO  Far-Eastern  Problems 107 

BY  JEREMIAH  W.   JENKS,   PH.D.,   LL.D. 


FROM  GENERATION  TO  GENERATION 

BY 
JOtIN    HUSTON   FINLEY,  LL.D.,  L  H.  D. 


FROM  GENERATION  TO  GENERATION 

There  are  many  Hebrew  legends  which  have  gath- 
ered about  that  early  figure  on  the  dim  edge  of  history, 
Enoch,  the  son  of  Jared, — not  the  Enoch,  son  of  Cain 
(after  whom  the  latter  named  the  city  that  he  builded 
in  the  land  of  Nod),  but  the  Enoch  of  whom  the  Bibli- 
cal record  is  simply  that  he  lived  so  many  years, 
"walked  with  God  and  was  not,  for  God  took  him." 
According  to  one  of  these  legends  he  was  the  first 
great  teacher,  inventor,  and  scientist  of  the  race  and 
the  first  to  attempt  to  pass  on,  in  a  systematic  way, 
from  generation  to  generation,  the  wisdoms  of  human 
experience  and  divine  revelation.  For,  having  been 
forewarned  that  the  earth  would  be  destroyed  once  by 
fire  and  once  by  water,  he  erected  two  pillars  (that 
came  to  be  known  as  "Enoch's  Pillars")  on  which  he 
caused  to  be  inscribed  "all  such  learning  as  had  been 
delivered  unto  or  invented  by  mankind."  "Thus," 
the  legend  adds,  "it  was  that  all  knowledge  and  learn- 
ing were  not  lost,  for  one  of  these  pillars  remained 
after  the  flood." 

Here  have  we  the  primordial  illustration  of  that 
subjective  mystery  of  the  mind's  desire  which  is  ever 
pushing  out  beyond  the  verge  of  the  known,  and  which 
is  not  content  until  it  has  tried  to  tell  the  next  gen- 
eration what  it  has  learned,  and  has  found  expression 

3 


4  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

objectively  in  such  institutions  as  this  and  in  such 
systems  of  education  as  to-day  cover  great  portions  of 
the  earth. 

There  is  a  subsidiary  legend  about  this  primal 
teacher,  inventor  of  sewing,  and  scientist  (whose  first 
text-book  was  one  of  these  pillars)  that  has  further 
pertinency.  It  is  said  of  this  patriarch,  who  did  not 
die  (and  who  may  thus  be  said  to  personify  the  ge- 
neric ideal  teacher,  in  that  his  influence  persists  as  if  he 
were  living),  that  he  visited  heaven  once  before  his 
final  translation,  in  order  that  he  might  be  prepared 
to  teach  his  fellow  men  upon  his  return  to  earth. 
(This  would  seem  to  impart  a  theological  training, 
such  as  your  new  president  has  had — at  any  rate,  in- 
struction in  sacred  things.)  He  was  lifted  to  the 
abode  of  the  archangels,  who,  it  is  said,  not  only  ar- 
range and  study  the  revolutions  of  the  stars,  the 
changes  of  the  moon,  and  the  revolutions  of  the  sun, 
"but  also  arrange  teachings  and  instruction  and  sweet 
speaking  and  singing  of  all  kinds  of  glorious  praise." 
What  better  or  more  enchanting  picture  of  an  ideal 
institution  for  the  preparation  of  teachers,  established 
from  the  foundation  of  the  earth !  A  curriculum  in 
which  science  is  interspersed  with  sweet  speaking  and 
singing  by  archangels!  "Bring  first,"  said  the  Lord, 
"the  books  from  the  store  place  and  give  a  reed  to 
Enoch  and  interpret  the  books  to  him."  And  so  it 
was  that  this  first  university,  with  an  archangel  for  its 
president,  instructed  its  first  earth  pupil.  For  thirty 
days  and  thirty  nights  did  the  archangel  instruct  in- 


From  Generation  to  Generation  5 

tenslvely  (the  legend  has  it,  "his  hps  never  ceased 
speaking")  while  Enoch  wrote  down  "all  the  things 
about  heaven  and  earth,  angels  and  men  and  all  that 
it  is  suitable  to  be  instructed  in." 

And  when  the  course  of  instruction  was  ended  and 
Enoch  had  filled  three  hundred  thirty-six  note-books 
(this  sounds  very  like  a  modern  university  lecture 
course),  the  Lord  said:  "Go  thou  with  them  upon  the 
earth.  .  .  .  Give  them  the  works  written  out  by  thee 
and  they  shall  read  them  and  shall  distribute  works  to 
their  children's  children  and  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration and  from  nation  to  nation." 

"From  generation  to  generation  and  from  nation  to 
nation."  Here  was  the  command  given  to  the  first 
schoolmaster.  So  Enoch  went  back  to  earth  and  be- 
gan wide-spread  education — even  kings  and  princes 
coming  with  multitude  to  be  instructed,  as  a  result  of 
which  "Peace  reigned  over  the  whole  world  for  two 
hundred  and  forty-three  years."  His  pedagogical  in- 
fluence extended  over  the  whole  of  the  little  Biblical 
earth  in  its  physical  scope,  and  all  that  was  known  of 
angels  and  men  (that  is,  the  "supernal  and  temporal") 
was  embraced  in  his  curriculum. 

I  have  evoked  this  golden  legend  (for  it  should  be 
included  among  the  golden  legends  of  the  race),  a  leg- 
end which  is  not  as  familiar  as  the  stories  that  have 
come  down  from  the  mythological  days  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  and  I  have  copied  it  to  illuminate,  as  with  a 
golden  letter,  my  page,  in  the  story  of  the  inaugura- 
tion of  this  new  Enochian  president. 


6  Christianity  and  ProUeins  of  To-day 

We  have  an  intimation  in  this  legend  of  the  rich 
curriculum  that  should  be  presented  for  the  training 
of  those  who  are  to  incarnate  the  best  that  the  race 
has  aspired  to  and  striven  for  in  one  generation  (and 
there  is  nothing  more  important  than  their  broad, 
thorough  training)  and  to  carry  on  those  supreme  gifts 
to  the  next  generation.  A  recent  report  of  the  Car- 
negie Foundation  says,  in  its  summary  of  a  survey  of 
the  professional  preparation  of  teachers,  that  if  "train- 
ing of  any  sort  can  provide  men  and  women  who  are 
equipped  and  willing  to  serve  youth  as  youth  should 
be  served,  their  service  is  pre-eminent" — and  it  is 
"altogether  a  more  difficult  service  than  any  other  to 
render  well." 

I  remember  to  this  day  my  feelings  as  a  college  stu- 
dent at  Knox,  when  the  president  of  the  college.  Doc- 
tor Newton  Bateman,  whom  Abraham  Lincoln  called 
his  "little  friend,  the  big  schoolmaster"  of  Illinois, 
spoke  in  chapel  of  the  qualities  and  knowledges  which 
a  teacher  should  possess.  They  were  so  far  beyond 
what  I,  an  awkward  farm  boy,  could  hope  to  attain 
as  to  give  me  a  sense  of  guilt  that  I  had  ever  attempted 
to  teach  even  a  district  school,  and  to  confirm  me  in 
my  purpose  to  enter  another  field  of  work.  But  as  I 
look  back  now,  I  realize  that  the  "little  friend"  of 
Lincoln  out  here  on  the  prairies  was  but  saying  what 
educational  surveys  and  foundation  studies  are  setting 
forth  in  ponderous  volumes.  And  long,  long  back  of 
my  prairie  schoolmaster,  another  was  saying  in  the 
so-called  Eternal  City  words  that  should  be  written 


From  Generation  to  Generation  7 

in  jBaming  letters  on  the  walls  of  every  legislative  hall 
and  every  banquet-room.  Indeed,  I  am  not  sure  that 
we  need  others  than  these  on  our  Enochian  pillars,  if 
only  they  were  heeded  by  the  nation : 

For  not  alone  they  are  useful  to  the  State  who  defend  the 
accused,  bring  forth  candidates  for  office  and  cast  their  vote  for 
peace  or  war,  but  they  who  encourage  the  youth  [the  teacher  was 
ranked  with  the  senator]  who  in  so  great  a  scarcity  of  good 
teachers  instruct  the  minds  of  men  in  virtue  [there  was  a  great 
scarcity  of  good  teachers  then  as  now,  but  who  knows  what  the 
eternal  influence  of  some  unknown  teachers  of  to-day  may  be, 
for  the  greatest  of  world  teachers  was  then  going,  as  the  record 
has  it,  "among  the  villages  of  Galilee,  teaching"]  and  hold  them 
back  from  running  after  wealth  and  luxury  [for  so  it  was  in  the 
first  century,  as  in  this]  and  teach  what  is  meant  by  honesty, 
patience,  bravery,  justice,  contempt  of  death  and  how  much 
freely  given  good  there  is  in  a  good  conscience. 

How  difficult  it  is  to  prescribe  the  training  for  this 
high  office  of  incarnation  and  instruction  is  best  inti- 
mated in  the  answer  which  the  president  of  a  Missouri 
normal  school  gave  when  asked  the  question  as  to 
how  teachers  can  be  best  taught:  "This  is  a  question 
which  only  angels  can  answer."  But  we  do,  indeed, 
need  educational  archangels  (as  the  legend  of  Enoch 
intimated)  as  the  teachers  of  our  teachers.  And  there 
are  many  of  us  who  have  reason  to  thank  the  Lord 
that  here,  in  this  valley,  even,  in  some  of  its  little 
prairie  colleges,  there  were  and  are  such  archangels 
who  revealed  things  about  heaven  as  well  as  earth, 
and  angels  as  well  as  men.  One  of  them,  who  was  my 
teacher,  is  to  be  the  next  speaker. 


8  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

But  my  thought  is  rather  of  the  transmission  to  the 
new  generation,  as  a  whole,  of  what — to  paraphrase 
George  Edward  Woodberry — has  been  built  out  of  the 
mystery  of  thought  and  passion  of  the  past,  as  gen- 
eration after  generation  has  knelt,  fought,  faded,  and 
given  the  best  "that  anj'^^here  comes  to  be"  to  the 
souls  of  Enochian  urge  to  carry  on,  "letting  all  else 
fall  into  oblivion." 

As  the  most  primitive  and  picturesque  visualization 
of  the  curriculum  of  this  bequest  of  the  race  mind  of 
one  generation  to  the  next,  the  pillars  of  Enoch  stood 
on  the  verge  of  history  against  the  Eastern  sky  of  our 
civilization's  dawn.  They  have  crumbled,  or  they  lie 
buried  in  sands  that  have  hidden  their  wisdoms.  The 
excavator's  spade  could  uncover  no  more  interesting 
record  than  that  which  would  tell  us  what  this  great 
teacher  thought  should  be  saved  from  flood  and  fire 
out  of  the  experience  of  the  race. 

I  have  tried  to  imagine  what  was  written  there.  It 
must  have  been  a  very  meagre  list  to  have  all  been 
written  in  the  large  letters  or  s;>Tnbols  of  primitive 
speech  on  a  single  column.  But  the  earth  was  then 
yoimg  to  human  eyes.  (It  has  since  grown  so  aged 
as  to  have  its  years  counted  by  the  thousands  of  mil- 
lions.) And  man  was  but  come  upon  it,  or  so  he  then 
thought.  When  I  was  a  college  student,  I  supposed 
that  he  came  in  the  year  4004  B.  C,  but  now  we  are 
informed  that  he  has  been  here  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  years.  Even  so,  in  those  days  he  was  still  living  in 
what  I  have  called  the  perinikian  age;  that  is,  in  the 


From  Generation  to  Generation  9 

age  when  he  had  conquered  only  the  near,  an  age  when 
the  angels  even  were  very  near  the  earth  and  walked 
with  man.  The  ideal  being  in  that  period  was  a  crea- 
ture with  wings.  I  once  turned  to  my  Greek  lexicon 
to  discover  how  many  far  words  there  were  in  that  per- 
inikian  period,  whose  world  the  Greeks  had  somewhat 
extended,  and  I  found  sixty-seven  columns  of  "peri" 
(near)  words  and  only  about  five,  as  I  recall,  of  the 
"tele"  (far)  words,  for  the  earth  was  only  that  which 
was  within  reach  of  the  naked  eye,  the  unaided  voice. 
It  was  without  the  far-travelling  printed  word. 

Out  upon  the  shores  of  Phoenicia,  in  the  days  of  the 
war,  I  imagined  Cadmus,  the  legendary  father  of  let- 
ters, who  is  reputed  to  have  borne  the  alphabet  to  the 
Western  world  out  of  the  Orient,  as  not  entirely  cer- 
tain that  he  had  blessed  humanity  with  this  last  means 
of  far  conquest,  in  this  our  day  of  higher  mobility  and 
greater  transmissibility  of  ideas.  I  seemed  to  hear 
him  say; 

"When  I  witness  all  the  ravage 

Of  my  alphabetic  lore, 
See  the  neoHthic  savage 

Waging  culture-loving  war, 
Using  logarithmic  tables 

To  direct  his  helhsh  fire 
Preaching  philosophic  fables 

To  excuse  his  mad  desire; 
See  pure  science  turned  to  choking. 

Shooting,  drowning  humankind; 
Hear  a  litany,  invoking 

Hate  in  God's  benignant  mind; 


10  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

See  the  forest  trees  transmuted 

Into  lettered  pulp,  while  man 
With  a  brain  deep-convoluted 

Takes  the  place  of  primal  Pan, 
And  instead  of  finding  pleasure 

In  a  simple  life,  with  song. 
Spends  his  planetary  leisure 

Reading  of  a  world  gone  wTong — 
Seeing,  hearing  this,  I've  wondered 

'Mid  this  murder,  greed  and  fret, 
Whether  I  had  sinned  or  blundered 

Giving  man  the  alphabet." 

But  when  one  becomes  reflectively  conscious  of 
what  the  world's  literature  has  added  to  the  few  sen- 
tences upon  Enoch's  pillars,  beginning  with  the  Book 
of  Books,  the  one  book  that  man  cannot  be  without, 
one  has  a  reassuring  answer  for  Cadmus.  Indeed,  I 
found  it  myself  in  the  Christian  literature  that  was 
collected  in  a  city  just  north  of  T\Te  and  Sidon,  await- 
ing the  end  of  the  war,  for  its  scattering  throughout 
all  that  region  on  whose  edge  the  pillars  once  stood  (as 
I  have  seen  the  columns  of  old  Heliopolis,  the  city 
once  so  beloved  of  the  sun  that  he  hastened  over  the 
eastern  hills  to  spend  his  cloudless  days  about  it,  and 
lingered  upon  the  Lebanon  ^Mountains  as  long  as  possi- 
ble in  the  summer  afternoon,  reluctant  to  leave  the 
sight  of  it) . 

There  has  recently  been  published  by  a  Princeton 
professor  of  biology  an  essay  which  would  seem  to  inti- 
mate that  great  progress  has  not  been  made  since 
those  pillars  were  set  up  somewhere  beyond  the  Eu- 


From  Generation  to  Generation  11 

phrates;  for  his  contention  is  that  human  evolution 
has  reached  its  end;  that  for  at  least  ten  thousand  years 
there  has  been  no  notable  progress  in  the  evolution  of 
the  human  body,  and  that  there  has  been  no  progress 
in  the  intellectual  capacity  of  a  man  in  the  last  two  or 
three  thousand  years — that  all  we  can  do  now  is  to  lift 
the  mass  to  the  height  of  the  most  perfect  individual. 
I  cannot  assent  to  this,  for  I  see  man  upon  his  way 
from  God  to  God,  while  summing  the  race  that's  been, 
ever  giving  glimpses  of  a  diviner  grace  than  has  evolved 
(or  will,  if  we  accept  the  teaching  of  the  biologic  mind 
that  sees  his  evolution  at  an  end) — than  has  evolved, 
but  will,  for  soul  is  bound  to  mould  such  body  as  its 
needs  require  to  bear  it  toward  the  goal  it  seeks;  else 
why  were  clay  uplifted  to  this  height  if  it  can  never 
reach  the  higher  height,  the  image  it  would  make  of 
God  in  man  ? 

But  whether  the  biologist  be  right  or  I,  we  agree 
that  it  is  the  constant  obligation  of  the  living  genera- 
tion to  try  to  lift  mankind  toward  whatever  highest 
height  the  individual  has  reached  or  can  reach — and  it 
is  not  a  local,  a  parochial,  a  provincial,  or  even  a  na- 
tional obligation,  but  a  world  obligation,  in  this  tele- 
victorian  age — from  generation  to  generation,  from 
nation  to  nation.  As  Mr.  Wells  has  put  it,  it  is  a 
dream  not  alone  of  "individuals  educated,"  but  of  a 
world  educated  for  the  sake  of  all  mankind. 

But  long  before  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells  put  before  the  world 
the  suggestion  of  a  fundamental  world  curriculum  (it 
was  even  before  the  Great  War  had  made  the  need 


12  Christianity  and  Prohlems  of  To-day 

more  manifest),  it  came  to  me  that  the  curricula  of  the 
elementary  schools  of  the  nations  of  the  earth  should 
be  analyzed  to  discover  just  what  each  nation  was  at- 
tempting to  teach  its  children  through  formal  educa- 
tion, and  then  that  the  residuum,  after  the  purely  local 
matter  was  eliminated,  should  be  synthesized  into  a 
single  body  of  knowledge  ("delivered  to  or  invented 
by  mankind"),  which  should  embrace  what  the  race 
as  a  whole  seemingly  thought  it  most  vitally  important 
to  transmit  out  of  its  experience  to  those  who  were  to 
follow. 

Once  that  were  had,  we  should  then  call  upon  the 
greatest  minds  of  the  earth — the  Enochs  of  to-day — to 
confer  as  to  what  this  minimum  for  every  child  should 
be;  for  mere  mental  inertia,  pride,  prejudice,  the  force 
of  habit  and  such  causes  have  prevented  that  curricu- 
lum from  keeping  up  with  the  accumulation  of  funda- 
mental truth  as  it  has  been  brought  into  the  luminous 
circle  of  the  knowledge  of  some,  at  any  rate,  of  the 
race,  from  the  encircling  darkness. 

These  pillars  must  stand  in  the  clear  sight  of  all  the 
children  of  the  earth,  so  that  every  child  and  youth 
may  have  advantage  of  all  these  race  lessons  and  come 
to  know  them  by  heart  (i.  e.,  in  their  hearts),  if  there 
is  to  be  progress  toward  a  goal,  which,  if  it  were  not 
beyond  our  present  reach,  would  be  a  mean  one,  and 
if  it  were  not  ultimately  attainable,  would  be  Tan- 
talian,  for  it  is  the  law  of  progress  that  one  genera- 
tion shall  stand  on  the  shoulders  of  the  one  that  went 
before. 


From  Generation  to  Generation  13 

When  the  captive  king,  Croesus,  was  asked  by  the 
victorious  king,  Cyrus,  why  he  went  to  war,  he  an- 
swered that  he  had  been  directed  to  do  so  by  the 
oracle,  and  he  then  volunteered  the  remark:  "For  no 
man  in  his  senses  would  prefer  war  to  peace;  since  in 
peace  the  sons  bury  their  fathers,  whereas  in  war  the 
fathers  bury  their  sons."  This  is  a  biologic  law,  and 
it  conditions  intellectual  and  spiritual  progress  as  well. 
The  sons  must  bury  their  fathers  not  only  by  outliving 
them  but  by  outdoing  them. 

This  is  so  obvious  that  I  should  apologize  for  repeat- 
ing it  more  than  two  thousand  years  after  it  was  re- 
corded (by  Herodotus,  as  I  recall),  except  for  the  fact 
that  the  world  has  not  heeded  it.  As  a  distinguished 
university  president  said  a  few  nights  ago  in  my  hear- 
ing, the  world  needs  a  "bath  in  the  obvious."  While 
I  should  not  characterize  the  perusal  of  H.  G.  Wells's 
Outline  of  History  as  taking  this  sort  of  an  ablution 
(so  far  as  some  of  his  conclusions  are  concerned),  I  think 
that  he  was  justified  in  giving  more  space  to  this  remark 
of  Crcesus  and  the  incidental  circumstances  of  its  rela- 
tion than  he  gave  to  certain  whole  periods  of  national 
or  race  existence.  It  is  the  caption  that  should  be 
written  at  the  top  of  our  world  Enochian  pillars. 

And  I  should  write  below  it  that  utterance  of  Presi- 
dent Fisher,  of  England's  Board  of  Education,  made 
in  the  midst  of  the  war,  when  the  days  were  darkest: 

"Education  i3  the  eternal  debt  which  Maturity  owes  to  Youth." 

And  beneath  that  I  should  put,  I  think,  the  lines  of 


14  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

Gilbert  Murray,  whom  I  saw  the  same  day,  taken  from 

the  lips  of  Hecuba: 

"God,  to  Thee 
I  lift  my  praise,  seeing  the  silent  road 
That  bringeth  justice  ere  the  end  be  trod 
To  all  that  breathes  and  dies." 

What  should  be  written  in  detail  below  these  cap- 
tions, I  should  let  a  great  international  committee 
recommend — a  committee  with  planetary  conscious- 
ness which  could  let  each  people  continue  the  excel- 
lence that  has  "growTi  habitual  to  its  being,"  and  yet 
include  such  instruction  in  the  excellence  of  others  as 
to  abate  the  hatreds  that  now  divide  the  men  of  the 
earth,  even  as  they  were  divided  by  their  misunder- 
standings in  that  early  post-Noachian  period  when 
Eber,  the  son  of  Shelah,  named  his  boy  Peleg,  "be- 
cause in  his  day  the  earth  was  divided,"  and  the  chil- 
dren could  no  longer  read  the  lessons  upon  Enoch's 
pillars. 

I  travelled  the  entire  length  of  this  Ime  during  the 
war,  from  the  edge  of  the  desert  on  the  farther  edge  of 
which  Enoch's  pillars  stood  to  the  North  Sea.  From 
the  Mount  of  Olives  I  heard  and  saw  the  beginnings  of 
the  battle  of  Armageddon — not  an  allegorical  battle, 
but  the  literal  battle,  for  when  I  made  my  way  to 
Headquarters  down  on  the  plain  of  Sharon,  General 
Allenby,  coming  out  of  his  map-room,  said:  "I  have 
just  had  word  that  my  cavalry  are  at  Armageddon. 
The  battle  of  Armageddon  is  on."  And  a  few  nights 
after  I  walked  through  the  broken  entanglements  of 
wire  across  that  plain,  past  the  Mount,  as  the  dawn 


From  Generation  to  Generation  15 

came,  where  our  Lord  is  said  by  some  to  have  deliv- 
ered what  we  call  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  on  to 
Nazareth,  the  little  city  which  a  Denver  paper  referred 
to  familiarly  as  "  Christ's  home  town."  And  I  thought 
the  thousand  years  of  peace  referred  to  in  the  Book  of 
Revelation  had  come. 

But  I  have  since  travelled  over  a  great  part  of  that 
way — the  long,  long  way,  let  us  not  forget,  by  which 
we  have  come  out  of  captivity — and  I  found  that, 
while  the  barbed-wire  entanglements  have  been  cleared 
from  most  of  the  fields  and  the  trenches  had  been 
filled,  the  entanglements,  suspicion  and  hate,  were  still 
keeping  nations  apart,  even  without  guns  and  bombs 
and  poisonous  gas. 

I  was  the  first  American  to  make  the  journey  across 
Asia  Minor  after  the  Armistice.  Starting  from  the 
vicinity  of  the  Tower  of  Babel,  which  stood  amid  "the 
whole  earth  of  one  language  and  one  speech,"  and 
which  sought  to  reach  the  heaven  until  the  builders 
were  suddenly  unable  to  understand  one  another's 
speech  and  were  dispersed,  gibbering  and  gesticulat- 
ing and  quarrelling,  over  the  earth — starting  from  the 
neighborhood  of  that  Scriptural  memory,  I  travelled 
for  days  through  homeless  misery  and  physical  want 
and  mental  hate,  which  I  felt  were  but  the  sequelae  of 
the  world  disease,  and  would  soon  pass.  But  condi- 
tions are,  if  anything,  worse  than  when  I  passed  that 
way.  It  is  only  the  mercy  and  ennobling  philanthropy 
of  Americans  that  are  preventing  the  extermination 
or  degradation  of  a  race. 

But  I  have  more  lately  travelled  over  nearer  sections 


16  Christianity  and  Prohleins  of  To-day 

of  that  long  way  back  to  the  cradle  of  the  race  and  of 
Christian  civilization.  Within  the  year  I  have  walked, 
or  ridden  by  ship  or  train  or  airplane,  all  the  way  from 
the  west  coast  of  Ireland  to  the  then  closed  door  of 
Russia  and  along  its  then  impenetrable  western  wall 
down  to  Hmigary  and  back.  Alas  1  the  separating,  the 
estranging  hatreds  are  still  there. 

Barriers  and  entanglements,  visible  and  invisible, 
were  upon  every  border  all  the  way  across  Europe. 
Unspeakable  inconveniences,  often  hardships,  had  to 
be  endured  by  the  ordinary  traveller  in  these  zones  of 
suspicion  and  antipathy  and  hate,  till  I  came  to  think 
of  the  countries  they  separated  as  the  "United  Hates 
of  Europe." 

WTiat  I  wish  to  bring  out  of  this  all  is  not  our  local 
obligations,  our  interstate  and  intranational  obliga- 
tions, but  our  world  obligations,  which  we  share  with 
others — the  obligations  to  see  that  all  the  chUdren  of 
the  earth  have  a  chance  to  escape  from  those  hatreds 
into  the  best  things  of  the  race  as  a  whole. 

In  my  mid-European  travels  I  came  one  day  to  the 
country  where  Copernicus  had  developed  the  new 
theory  of  the  universe.  There  I  had  an  experience 
which  lifted  my  thought  into  the  broader  view  which 
ignored  barriers  and  entanglements.  It  was  a  journey 
in  an  airplane  that  rose  high  above  boundaries  and 
connected  Warsaw  with  Prague  and  Strasbourg  and 
Paris.  It  was  the  morning  of  Pentecost  Day  that  I 
made  the  journey — the  day  which  celebrates  the  com- 
ing together  of  people  from  many  nations  and  their 


From  Generation  to  Generation  17 

understanding  one  another  and  being  understood  be- 
cause of  the  cloven  tongues  that  descended  upon  them. 
As  we  flew  over  the  prairies  of  Poland  that  beautiful, 
clear  spring  Sunday  morning,  I  could  see  the  shadow 
of  the  plane  as  of  a  cloven  tongue  flying  beneath  us 
from  village  to  village,  and  even  over  the  disputed  ter- 
ritory of  Upper  Silesia.  This  was  the  symbolic  proph- 
ecy of  the  new  sort  of  understanding,  the  unifying 
fabric  woven  by  such  shuttles  that  must  by  their  woof 
replace  the  separating  entanglement  of  suspicion  and 
hatred  if  Europe,  and  so  the  world,  is  to  survive  some- 
thing worse  than  fire  or  flood.^ 

Before  I  began  the  airplane  journey  from  Warsaw  I 
went  to  take  my  last  look  at  the  statue  of  Copernicus, 
whose  conception  of  a  heliocentric  universe  is  the  capi- 
tal event  in  modern  thought.  At  the  foot  of  the 
Vosges  Mountains,  which  I  crossed  a  day  or  two  later 
into  France,  there  is  the  little  village  of  St.  Di^,  where, 
in  a  book  on  the  Ptolemaic  System,  the  name  America 
was  first  put  on  the  printed  page,  and  on  a  world  map. 
America  was  baptized  into  the  Ptolemaic  cosmos,  but 

^  Mr.  Frank  Vanderlip  has  expressed  the  same  view  in  his 
work  What  Next  in  Europe:  "The  prerequisite  for  that  is 
a  change  of  spirit,  and  I  believe  we  can  do  a  great  deal  to  allay 
the  suspicions,  the  hatreds  and  the  selfishness  of  European 
people.  We  can  help  them  see  the  necessity  for  unity;  help  them 
apprehend  the  terrible  cost  of  selfishness.  They  must  under- 
stand that  the  reconstruction  of  Europe  is  a  comprehensive  task. 
Only  united  effort,  and  a  recognition  that  the  welfare  of  individual 
nations  can  be  achieved  through  general  international  good-will, 
can  accomphsh  it.  We  could  largely  aid  in  developing  such  a 
spirit. 

"Our  first  duty,  as  Mazaryk  said,  is  to  understand!" 


18  Christianity  and  Problerm  of  To-day 

its  inhabitants  (after  the  aborigines)  dwelt  from  the 
first  in  a  Copernican  universe,  wanderers  in  an  infinity 
of  space,  "  with  a  shuddering  sense  of  physical  immen- 
sity." 

Europe  could  not  readily  forget  the  geography  of  its 
infancy  and  childhood  and  maturity,  but  America  be- 
gan its  God-fearing  settlement  with  an  astronomy  of 
infinite  distances,  with  a  cosmography  in  which  it  was 
itself  infinitesimal,  and  with  a  geography  partaking  of 
the  sky,  as  well  as  of  the  sea  and  land. 

With  this  Copernican  consciousness  of  the  universe, 
America  should  be  the  least  provincial,  and  Americana 
the  most  "universe-minded"  of  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  earth. 

Isolate  we  have  indeed  been  as  a  people,  but  not 
provincially  nor  narrowly  nor  proudly  isolate.  We 
kept  out  of  the  partisan  Ptolemaic  concerns  of  Europe, 
but  when  the  freedom  of  mankind  was  threatened, 
America's  policies  leaped  to  the  world  horizon  of  her 
interest  in  humanity.  Our  America  has  had  from  the 
first  a  cosmic  view,  a  concern  for  all  mankind.  "All 
men"  are  included  in  its  national  creed.  It  is  only 
those  who  would  narrow  our  horizon  of  sympathy  and 
bring  a  Ptolemaic  sky  over  our  heads  again  that  it  has 
in  its  doctrine  excluded. 

So  it  is  not  by  accident,  I  think,  that  we  have  put 
the  stars  in  the  field  of  our  flag.  They  are  cosmic 
symbols  gathered  from  the  immeasurable  universe,  not 
from  pieces  of  earth  and  stretches  of  water,  which  to- 
gether make  up  what  we  are  accustomed  to  call,  what- 


From  Generation  to  Generation  19 

ever  our  origin,  "our  native  land" — a  people  of  clearly 
defined  national  personality,  but  of  planetary  con- 
sciousness and  of  interdependent  destinies. 

But  in  this  land  of  Copernicus,  where  "the  capital 
event  of  modern  thought"  occurred,  I  found  that  only 
two  million  eight  hundred  thousand  children  of  school 
age  out  of  four  million  six  hundred  thousand  had  any 
schooling  whatever.  It  was  hoped  by  the  minister  of 
education  that  by  1928,  if  only  the  fear  of  a  new  par- 
tition of  Poland  could  be  removed  and  credits  found, 
they  might  make  some  most  elemental  provision  for 
the  rest — and  this  only  because  so  many  of  the  young 
men  of  Poland  had  perished  in  the  World  War  that 
the  coming  generation  would  be  a  smaller  one.  I  could 
present  statistics  of  like  import  for  other  European 
states.  They  would  all  support  my  thesis,  that  since 
we  have  had  a  World  War  for  freedom,  we  should 
have  a  world  plan  for  giving  the  children  who  have 
suffered  in  this  divided  earth  (the  millions  of  "Pelegs") 
an  elemental  chance  to  enjoy  that  freeing  of  the  soul 
which  is,  with  the  unity  of  mankind,  the  ideal  end  of 
the  state. 

A  plan  which  I  proposed  some  time  ago,  and  which 
I  have  now  taken  courage  of  the  support  in  modified 
form  by  men  of  large  financial  and  organizing  experi- 
ence to  defend,  is  that  the  Allied  debts  be  made  a  per- 
manent trust  fund,  to  be  administered  for  the  educa- 
tion of  the  children  of  all  peoples,  so  far  as  they  can 
be  so  applied.  The  proposal  has  been  characterized 
as  "good  business,"  not  to  demand  the  full  payment 


20  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

of  these  debts  with  interest  of  that  which  we  loaned, 
but  spent  largely  at  home,  and  after  we  entered  the 
war.  The  fundamental  thought  on  which  I  should 
base  the  proposal  is  that  the  world,  as  a  whole,  owes 
something  to  the  children  who  have  no  fair  chance  in 
it  because  of  what  those  upon  whom  they  are  natu- 
rally dependent  have  sacrificed  for  the  good  of  the 
world  as  a  whole. 

My  original  proposal  was  that  the  principal  should 
be  cancelled  as  it  was  so  spent,  but  Judge  Lovett, 
president  of  the  Union  Pacific,  has  proposed  merely 
the  application  of  the  interest  at  a  moderate  rate  annu- 
ally to  this  purpose  if  and  when  it  can  be  paid,  though 
he  has  given  it  a  broader  scope — ^putting  education 
last — the  care  of  widows,  orphans,  and  crippled  first — 
but  ultimately  it  should  all  be  devoted  to  education. 

A  ten-billion  dollar  war  debt  converted  (as  a  thanks- 
giving offering  for  deliverance  from  something  worse 
than  the  world  knows  even  at  its  worst  to-day)  into  a 
perpetual  trust  fund  for  the  children  of  the  world,  espe- 
cially for  those  who  have  come  "trailing  clouds  of 
glory"  into  a  part  of  the  world  where  they  haven't 
a  chance  to  come  into  the  heritage  of  their  genera- 
tion. 

Five  hundred  million  dollars  a  year  (an  incredible 
number  of  Austrian  crowns,  Russian  roubles,  or  Polish 
marks  (if  indeed  the  interest  could  be  paid  at  the  rate 
of  five  per  cent))  which  would  give  an  elementary- 
school  training  to  ten  million  children  each  year — as 
many  children  as  are  born  each  year  into  the  world. 


From,  Generation  to  Generation  21 

And  this  interest  could  be  paid  if  armaments  were  un- 
necessary. 

Ten  million  children  a  year  taught  the  best  that  has 
been  "delivered  unto  or  invented  by  mankind"  (as 
listed  in  the  world  curriculum)  and  led  in  their  tuition 
toward  the  conscious  unity  of  the  race — ^planetary 
consciousness  I 

Has  a  more  stirring  opportunity  ever  been  offered 
to  any  people  than  is  ours  in  the  refunding  of  the  great 
war  debt,  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  a  blessing  to  the 
next  generation  instead  of  a  crushing  burden  to  the 
tax-paying  generation  that  now  goes  bent  with  its 
burdens  across  Europe?  If  we  were  to  demand  our 
pound  of  flesh  we  should  deserve  the  future  fate  of 
those  in  the  "Inferno"  who  went  eternally  about 
weighed  with  cloaks  of  lead  that  were  covered  by  a 
veneer  of  gold. 

Some  of  the  principal  might  be  used  to  buy  books  in 
which  these  millions  of  children  might  enter  into  the 
common  possession  of  the  race  (perhaps  in  a  common 
language),  free  of  scorn  of  other  nations,  and  so  never 
know  the  hatreds  which  estranged  their  fathers;  and 
some  might  be  spent  for  the  syndicated  material  of 
which  Mr.  Wells  speaks — the  knowledges  of  those 
things  which  would  help  them  to  find  their  particular 
place  in  the  cosmos. 

Again,  a  part  of  the  principal  might  be  spent  (and 
cancelled  as  a  debt  when  so  spent)  in  building  school- 
houses  where  none  can  otherwise  be  built  for  a  genera- 
tion or  two.    These  would  be  modem  Enochian  pillars 


22  Christianity  mid  Problems  of  To-day 

— for  what  is  a  schoolhouse,  after  all,  essentially  but 
the  very  thing  that  Enoch  caused  to  be  erected — at 
any  rate,  when  the  teacher  is  in  the  schoolhouse  fur- 
nished with  the  knowledge  of  the  race  mind  ? 

Even  so,  there  would  be  enough  left  to  provide  for 
millions  of  planetary  pupils  in  perpetuity. 

It  would  be  the  greatest  foundation  ever  established 
upon  earth  for  the  salvation  of  civilization. 

Many  years  ago,  when  as  a  young  college  president 
in  this  valley  I  was  speaking  at  a  real-estate  dinner  in 
Chicago,  I  recalled  how  an  ancient  city  was  saved  by 
the  fact  that  it  had  so  many  score  thousand  children 
who  could  not  tell  theh  right  hand  from  their  left 
hand — and  also  much  cattle.  Innocent  children  and 
cattle  saved  Nineveh  for  a  time,  but  not  permanently. 
If  the  prophet  Jonah  were  alive  to-day  he  would  know 
that  the  doom  he  preached  finally  came  upon  the  city. 
He  sleeps  (or  so  the  tradition  is)  in  a  village  but  six  or 
eight  miles  from  Bethlehem,  that  might  have  seen  the 
star  if  it  had  been  awake  on  the  night  when  it  came 
and  stood  over  the  place  where  the  young  child  was. 
He  would  know  if  he,  himself,  were  awake  that  it  is 
only  children  who  have  learned  the  lessons  of  the  race 
who  have  the  power  of  world  salvation — children  who 
have  also  learned  by  heart  the  lessons  of  the  two  great 
commandments. 

Years  ago  I  was  ploughing  com  on  a  hot  June  day 
on  an  Illinois  prairie  when  I  heard  a  sound  in  the  air 
above  me,  which  one  unused  to   the  country  might 


From  Generation  to  Generation  23 

have  thought  the  thrumming  of  a  choir  celestial.  But 
with  a  farm  boy's  instinct  I  divined  that  it  was  a  swarm 
of  bees,  even  before  I  saw  the  httle  cloud  moving  over 
the  field  toward  the  woods  two  or  three  miles  away. 
I  did  what  any  farm  boy  would  have  done  if  he  could 
leave  his  team.  I  followed  the  swarm,  throwing  up 
dust  and  clods  of  earth,  and  making  all  possible  noise, 
with  the  result  that  I  brought  the  swarm  down  upon 
the  branch  of  a  tree  at  the  edge  of  the  field.  Then  at 
evening  I  got  a  hive,  lured  them  into  it,  and  then  car- 
ried them  home,  where  they  made  honey  for  the  season, 

So  if  we  follow  these  ideals,  which  may  seem  at  first 
but  some  millennial  rhetoric,  and  bring  them  down  to 
earth,  we  may  find  a  way  to  sweeten  the  bitter  bread 
of  millions  of  children  in  other  lands — and  yet  have 
enough  and  to  spare  for  our  own,  in  spite  of  the  reports 
which  I  have  been  hearing  to-day  from  those  same 
corn-fields,  whose  bountiful  crops  the  farmers  cannot 
sell,  though  others  are  starving. 

But  let  us  take  courage  of  the  way  we  have  already 
come,  since  Enoch  reared  his  pillars  in  the  pre-Noa- 
chian  days.  The  children  of  Israel  were  required  to 
keep  each  year  the  feast  of  the  tabernacles,  during  the 
seven  days  of  which  they  were  commanded  to  leave 
their  homes  and  go  out  and  live  in  booths  or  tents, 
not  for  a  holiday,  but  that  they  might  be  kept  mindful 
of  the  fact  that  their  fathers  came  out  of  captivity.  I 
have  often  thought  that  it  would  have  a  very  whole- 
some effect  if  all  the  world  could  keep  such  a  feast, 


24  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

and  this  would  be  its  proclamation,  as  I  have  drafted 
it,  though  not  in  the  usual  form:^ 

"This  shall  ye  do,  O  men  of  earth, 
Ye  who've  forgotten  your  far  birth. 
Your  forebears  of  the  slanting  skull, 
Barbaric,  brutal,  sluggard,  dull, 
(Of  whom  no  portraits  hang  to  boast 
The  ancient  lineage  of  the  host) — 
Ye  who've  forgot  the  time  when  they 
Were  redolent  of  primal  clay, 
Or  lived  in  wattled  hut,  or  cave, 
But,  turned  to  dust  or  drowmed  by  wave. 
Have  left  no  traces  on  Tune's  shores 
Save  mounds  of  shells  at  their  cave  doors 
And  lithic  knives  and  spears  and  darts 
And  savage  passions  in  our  hearts; 
This  shall  ye  do:  seven  days  each  year 
Ye  shall  forsake  what  ye  hold  dear; 
From  fields  of  tamed  fruits  and  flowers, 
From  love-ht  homes  and  sky-built  towers. 
From  palaces  and  tenements 
Ye  shall  go  forth  and  dwell  in  tents, 
In  tents,  and  booths  of  bough-made  roofs. 
Where  ye  may  hear  the  flying  hoofs 
Of  beasts  long  gone,  the  cries  of  those 
Who  were  your  fathers'  forest  foes. 
Or  see  their  shadows  riding  fast 
Along  the  edges  of  the  past; 
All  this,  that  ye  may  keep  in  mind 
The  nomad  way  by  which  mankind 
Has  come  from  his  captivity, 
Walking  dry-shod  the  earth-wide  sea, 

^  Published  in  Scribner's  Magazine. 


From  Generation  to  Generation  25 

Riding  the  air,  consulting  stars. 
Driving  great  caravans  of  cars, 
Building  the  furnace,  bridge  and  spire 
Of  earth-control  and  heav'n  desire, 
Rising  in  journey  from  the  clod 
Into  the  glory  of  a  god. 

This  shall  ye  do,  0  men  of  earth. 
That  ye  may  know  the  crowned  worth 
Of  what  ye  are — and  hope  renew. 
Seeing  the  road  from  dawn  to  you ! 
Then  turning  toward  the  pillared  cloud 
Ahead,  or  pillared  fire,  endowed 
With  prescience  of  a  promised  goal 
See  still  a  highway  for  the  soul." 

And  along  the  way  at  intervals  stand  the  Enochian 
schools,  colleges,  and  universities,  givmg  instruction 
in  the  best  that  the  human  race  has  learned  "from 
generation  to  generation  and  from  nation  to  nation." 


JESUS'  SOCIAL  PLAN 

BY 

CHARLES  FOSTER  KENT,  PH.D.,  LITT.D. 


JESUS'  SOCIAL    PLAN 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  so  many-sided  that  each 
man  and  each  age  have  found  in  him  the  quahties  in 
which  they  are  most  interested.  He  has  with  truth 
been  characterized  as  prophet,  poet,  philosopher,  phy- 
sician, and  saviour  of  men.  In  the  eyes  of  his  con- 
temporaries he  was  pre-eminently  the  teacher  of  the 
masses,  the  healer  of  the  sick,  and  the  friend  of  sinners. 
The  ascetic  Middle  Ages  saw  in  him  only  the  man  of 
sorrows,  and  pictured  him  as  sad  and  anaemic.  To  the 
Protestant  reformers  and  the  Puritans  he  was  the  su- 
preme protestant  against  the  sins  of  mankind.  The 
discerning  thinkers  of  our  present  social  age  are  begin- 
ning to  recognize  in  him  the  great  social  psychologist, 
who  not  only  analyzed  the  ills  of  society  but  also  pro- 
vided for  them  a  potent  cure. 

The  majority  of  men,  however,  fail  to  appreciate 
Jesus'  social  teachings,  because  they  think  of  him  as 
far  removed  from  the  complex  social  programme  pre- 
sented by  our  highly  developed  civilization;  but  the 
enlightened  historian  well  knows  that  between  the  first 
century  in  which  Jesus  lived  and  our  own  there  are 
many  startlingly  close  analogies.  In  Jesus'  day  the 
old  racial  and  national  bonds  had  been  largely  de- 
stroyed and  many  ancient  traditions  and  customs  had 
been  rudely  shattered  or  else  cast  aside.    Men  were 

29 


30  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

sharply  divided  into  classes  separated  by  clashing  in- 
terests. Industrial  slavery  held  great  masses  of  men 
in  a  bondage  that  was  both  physical  and  moral. 
Herded  together  in  congested  districts  of  the  great 
cities  that  had  suddenly  sprung  into  existence,  they 
lived  a  life  that  was  in  many  respects  worse  than  that 
of  the  beast.  Lax  divorce  laws  and  looser  marital 
relations  had  undermined  the  integrity  of  the  home. 
A  great  wave  of  social  immorality  was  destroying  the 
physical  and  spiritual  health  of  the  individual  and  of 
society. 

At  the  same  time  mankind  was  beginning  to  feel  its 
unity  and  to  work  out  its  problems  in  universal  terms. 
The  yearning  for  brotherhood  and  for  vital  bonds  that 
would  bind  each  man  to  his  fellows  was  strong.  Con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  men  everjnvhere  were  seek- 
ing for  a  satisfying  philosophy  of  life  that  would  afford 
them  peace  and  happiness  in  this  life  and  a  definite 
hope  of  even  greater  joy  in  the  realm  beyond.  They 
were  also  longing  for  a  social  organization  that  would 
give  them  freedom  and  an  opportunity  for  each  to  live 
his  life  to  the  full.  Dissatisfaction  with  the  outworn 
social  programmes  of  the  past  was  expressed  on  every 
side.  The  expectancy  of  a  dawn  of  a  new  day  was 
almost  universal. 

Practically  every  type  of  social  programme  known 
to  us  to-day  was  found  in  that  old  Roman  world. 
Rome,  in  name  still  a  republic,  was  in  reality  an  im- 
perial monarchy,  ruled  absolutely  by  the  will  of  one 
man.    It  was  a  typical  representative  of  the  ancient 


Jesus'  Social  Plan  31 

autocratic  idea  of  government.  The  old  Hebrew  com- 
monwealth, like  the  city  states  of  Greece,  was  only  a 
memory  of  the  past,  but  it  stood  for  the  democratic 
ideal — the  rule  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the 
people — in  which  the  ultimate  authority  was  vested  in 
a  popular  assembly.  Subject  to  the  rule  of  Rome, 
the  later  Jewish  hierarchical  form  of  government  still 
survived  in  Jerusalem  as  a  representative  of  that  pecu- 
liar type  of  social  organization  in  which  religious  and 
temporal  authority  are  blended.  The  rule  of  the  rab- 
ble, to  be  instituted  by  violence  and  revolution  and 
maintained  by  force,  found  its  protagonists  in  those 
bloody,  relentless  Bolshevists  of  the  first  century,  the 
Zealots.  They  only  waited  the  leader  and  the  oppor- 
tunity to  fly  at  the  throats  of  their  Roman  masters 
and  to  make  a  mad  attempt  to  overthrow  all  existing 
forms  of  government.  On  the  ruins  of  society  they 
wished  to  set  up  a  Jewish  state  that  would  rule  the  rest 
of  mankind  with  a  rod  of  iron. 

Down  along  the  rocky  banks  of  the  brook  Kedron, 
less  than  fifteen  miles  from  Jerusalem,  lived  the  Essene 
brotherhoods.  They  represented  the  purest  t>T)e  of 
communistic  socialism.  All  property  was  held  in  com- 
mon. The  results  of  the  labor  of  each  went  into  the 
common  store.  All  shared  alike  their  possessions.  It 
was  also  a  nobler  communism  than  we  know  to-day, 
for  its  chief  aim  was  not  the  division  of  the  products  of 
human  enterprise,  but  the  lofty  and  unselfish  ideals  of 
serving  and  uplifting  humanity. 

The  learned  scribes  and  Pharisees  were  dreaming  of 


32  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

a  far  different  type  of  world  state:  one  that  was  to  be 
suddenly  and  miraculously  established.  Jerusalem  was 
to  be  its  capital  and  a  Jewish  Messiah  its  head.  The 
faithful  martyrs  who  had  died  for  their  religion  were 
to  be  reincarnated  to  share  its  glories.  The  heathen 
nations  were  to  be  subdued  and  the  rule  of  Israel's 
God  was  to  be  recognized  throughout  the  whole  earth. 

Only  a  few  humble  students  of  the  prophets  and 
psalmists  were  quietly  working  and  hoping  for  a 
society  in  which  justice,  good-will,  and  mutual  help- 
fulness were  to  be  the  compelling  bonds  and  the  will 
of  God  the  guiding  authority.  Autocracy  and  democ- 
racy, hierarchy  and  anarchy,  communistic  socialism 
and  nationalistic  theocracy  each  found  enthusiastic  de- 
voted supporters  in  that  vast  laboratory  of  social  ex- 
perimentation in  which  Jesus  lived.  Every  type  of 
social  programme  that  we  know  to-day  was  there  rep- 
resented. 

Did  he  have  a  social  plan,  and  was  it  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  the  twentieth  as  well  as  to  those  of  the  first 
Christian  century  ?  The  records  of  Jesus'  work  are  so 
fragmentary  that  they  have  given  to  most  readers  the 
impression  that  he  was  simply  an  itinerant  preacher 
and  teacher  without  definite  plan  and  method.  Paul 
is  ordinarily  regarded  as  the  great  organizer  who  gave 
Christianity  its  corporate  form.  A  more  careful  study 
of  the  facts,  however,  reveals  a  clearly  defined  aim  and 
a  systematic,  comprehensive  plan  underlying  all  of 
Jesus'  work. 

It  is  important  to  remember  that  for  more  than 


Jesus'  Social  Plan  33 

three-fourths  of  his  life  Jesus  was  an  active  business 
man  and,  therefore,  in  close  touch  with  the  economic 
and  social  life  of  his  age.  He  was  a  son  of  Joseph,  the 
iechnon,  that  is,  the  constructor  or  builder.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  early  death  of  Joseph  left  Jesus,  the  eld- 
est son,  in  charge  of  this  family  firm  of  builders.  The 
names  of  four  other  sons  are  given.  This  added  re- 
sponsibility would  mean  that  Jesus  was  not  only  a 
manual  laborer  himself  but  was  also  accustomed  to 
directing  the  work  of  others.  The  conclusion  that  he 
was  a  master  builder,  who  knew  the  importance  of  a 
definite  plan  and  method  and  of  carefully  counting  the 
cost,  is  confirmed  by  many  of  his  teachings.  "  Who  of 
you,  if  he  wishes  to  build  a  tower,  does  not  first  sit 
down  and  count  the  costs  to  see  whether  he  has  money 
to  complete  it?  Or  what  king,  on  going  to  war  with 
another  king,  does  not  first  sit  down  and  deliberate 
whether  with  ten  thousand  men  he  can  withstand  the 
one  who  is  coming  against  him  with  twenty  thousand  ?  " 
No  one  laid  greater  stress  on  foresight  than  did 
Jesus.  At  every  point  he  reveals  familiarity  with  sys- 
tem, method,  and  organization.  In  this  respect  he  is 
more  like  the  modern  Occidental  than  the  Orientals  of 
his  day.  His  detailed  directions  to  his  disciples,  when 
he  sent  them  out  two  by  two  to  extend  the  bounds  of 
his  work,  are  models  of  business  efiiciency.  "Take 
nothing  but  a  staff,"  which  makes  long  journeys  on 
foot  comparatively  easy.  "Take  no  extra  baggage," 
which  impedes  progress.  "Do  not  stop  to  greet  any 
one  on  the  road,"  for  the  elaborate  Oriental  greetings 


34  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

often  consumed  hours  of  precious  time.  Commanded 
to  take  no  food,  they  were  dependent  upon  that  Ori- 
ental hospitaHty  which  opened  wide  the  door  and  the 
heart  of  those  whom  the  disciples  were  to  reach  and 
to  help.  "Stop  only  at  the  homes  where  you  receive 
a  hearty  welcome,"  for  there  only  can  you  do  eflBcient 
work.  "Be  content  with  the  entertainment  provided, 
and  do  not  go  from  house  to  house,"  for  in  this  way 
will  you  avoid  wasteful  distraction.  "'Go  out  two  by 
two,"  for  this  is  the  best  unit  in  doing  effective  work 
(as  our  modern  drives  have  amply  demonstrated).  Di- 
rectness, economy,  and  practical  efficiency  character- 
ize each  of  these  commands.  The  principles  under- 
lying them  are  ever}^T\^here  accepted  as  standard  in  the 
scientific  business  world  of  to-day. 

Jesus,  as  portrayed  in  the  earliest  records,  was  not 
an  impractical  dreamer  nor  a  wan  ascetic,  as  ordinarily 
pictured  in  art  and  in  popular  imagination,  but  a  prac- 
tical man  of  affairs  with  definite  plans  and  systematic 
methods  of  carrying  them  into  execution. 

The  evidence  that  Jesus  has  a  definite  social  plan  is 
cumulative  and  convincing.  From  the  beginning  of 
his  public  appearance  his  thought  and  activities  were 
shaped  by  it.  It  is  the  background  of  that  dramatic 
story  of  the  temptation,  which  comes  straight  from  the 
lips  of  Jesus  himself.  Though  its  language  is  highly 
figurative,  the  story  throws  a  flood  of  light  upon  Jesus* 
purpose.  The  first  temptation  suggests  the  vigor  with 
which  he  rejected  the  natural  inclination  to  yield  to 
the  instinctive  desire  for  ease  and  self-indulgence  and 


Jesus'  Social  Plan  35 

to  use  his  divine  powers  for  his  own  happiness  rather 
than  that  of  society.  The  second  and  third  tempta- 
tions deal  with  the  methods  to  be  used  in  carrying  out 
his  far-flung  social  programme.  Should  he  use  sensa- 
tional devices  and  by  some  miraculous  act,  such  as 
throwing  himself  down  from  the  temple  heights,  gratify 
the  popular  demand  for  divine  credentials  ?  Or  should 
he  realize  his  plan  by  compromise  ? 

The  breadth  of  his  social  outlook  is  clearly  disclosed 
by  this  third  temptation;  from  the  first  his  plan  in- 
cluded "all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  their 
glory."  The  tempting  thought  came  to  him  that  these 
could  easily  be  brought  under  his  benign  sway,  if  he 
would  but  set  aside  his  lofty  ideals,  if  he  would  but  be 
silent  regarding  the  crimes  of  the  ruling  powers,  if  he 
would  but  give  up  his  exalted  conception  of  the  rule  of 
God  and  fulfil  the  current  national  expectations  that 
were  beating  strong  in  the  hearts  of  the  multitudes 
that  thronged  about  him.  As  the  event  proved,  they 
were  eager  to  hail  him  as  the  popular  Messiah.  His 
temptation  to  bow  down  to  Satan  is  vividly  illustrated 
in  the  dramatic  scene  where  Peter  professes  his  faith 
in  Jesus  as  the  Messiah,  and  then  tries  to  dissuade  him 
from  going  up  into  Jerusalem  to  face  shame  and  prob- 
able death.  "Away  with  you,  Satan,"  is  Jesus'  vehe- 
ment exclamation,  "for  you  are  thinking  the  thoughts 
of  man,  not  of  God  I"  This  striking  incident  makes  it 
very  clear  that  in  the  mind  of  Jesus  there  was  a  defi- 
nite, practical  plan,  far  different  from  that  which  ob- 
sessed his  race  and  in  the  end  lured  them  on  to  their 


36  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

ruin  In  the  tragic  years  of  69  and  70.  So  eager  was  he 
to  see  its  early  adoption,  not  only  by  liis  race  but  by 
all  nations,  that  short  cuts  and  even  compromises  were 
to  him  very  real  temptations.  But  his  social  plan  was 
so  clearly  defined  that  the  specious  doctrine  that  the 
end  justifies  the  means  could  not  swerve  him.  He 
had  no  desire  to  build  a  social  structure  that  would  rise 
and  fall  like  the  thousands  that  have  been  reared  be- 
fore and  since — what  Henry  Adams  describes  as  ''the 
perpetual  building  up  of  an  authority  by  force  and  the 
perpetual  appeal  to  force  to  overthrow  it." 

Jesus'  words  to  Peter,  "On  this  rock  I  found  my 
community,"  indicated  that  he  was  seeking  to  build 
a  structure  that  would  endure,  because  it  was  built  on 
the  solid  rock  of  reality  and  in  accordance  with  the 
divine  purpose.  For  this  reason  he  keenly  appreciated 
the  importance  of  building  on  the  right  foundations 
and  with  the  right  material.  The  major  part  of  his 
time  and  energy  was  devoted  to  preparing  these  mate- 
rials. Hence  his  intense  interest  in  the  saving  and 
remaking  of  men  and  women.  Peter,  the  rock,  was 
typical  of  the  social  citizens  that  he  was  seeking  to 
develop  and  out  of  which  he  planned  to  build  his  new 
society. 

Like  Zoroaster,  Confucius,  and  Gautama  Buddha, 
Jesus  was  not  content  with  presenting  merely  an  ab- 
stract social  programme.  He  was  eager  to  incarnate 
it  in  flesh  and  blood,  so  that  men  could  see  it  with 
their  eyes  and  participate  in  it.  With  all  the  enthusi- 
asm and  energy  of  his  kinetic  personality,  he  went 


Jesus'  Social  Plan  37 

about  laying  the  foundations  for  the  new  society. 
This  aim  alone  explains  why  at  first  he  left  Galilee, 
went  down  into  Judea,  and  allied  himself  with  that 
courageous  herald  of  the  new  social  order,  John  the 
Baptist.  When  the  opposition  of  the  Jewish  leaders 
and  the  cruel  relentlessness  of  Herod  Antipas  closed 
the  doors  of  Jerusalem  and  Judea  to  Jesus  he  returned 
to  Galilee  but  not  to  Nazareth.  He  chose  instead,  as 
the  scene  of  his  future  work,  the  great  Jewish  metropo- 
lis of  Capernaum.  Its  choice  as  the  centre  of  his  pub- 
lic activity  is  exceedingly  significant.  Jesus  was  by 
birth  and  training  a  peasant.  He  always  felt  most  at 
home  among  the  tree-clad  hills.  City  life  had  none  of 
the  attractions  for  him  that  it  had  for  Paul,  the  cos- 
mopolitan. Going  to  a  great  city  was  for  Jesus  a 
daring  adventure.  He  went  to  Capernaum  because  it 
was  the  largest  centre  of  Jewish  population  in  north- 
ern Palestine.  As  the  present  ruins  indicate,  it  ex- 
tended for  four  or  five  miles  along  the  northern  shores 
of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  from  the  point  where  the  Jordan 
enters  the  lake  on  the  north  to  the  borders  of  the  plain 
of  Genneseret  to  the  northwest.  Across  the  Jordan 
was  Bethsaida,  and  a  few  miles  to  the  north,  at  the 
head  of  a  rocky  gorge,  was  Chorazin,  another  of  the 
many  populous  suburbs  of  the  greater  Capernaum. 

In  this  huge  metropolis  were  crowded  "the  lost 
sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel"  whom  Jesus  came  to 
seek  and  to  save.  Jesus  went  down  into  the  siclmess 
and  crime-infected  slums  of  Capernaum  to  transform 
them  and  to  make  them  the  homes  of  happy,  co-operat- 


Iv'Gloi 


o 


38  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

ing  men  and  women.  In  that  large,  typical  suburban 
centre  he  aimed  to  establish  the  fraternal  community 
that  was  to  be  the  corner-stone  of  the  new  social  order 
that  he  hoped  would  ultimately  include  "all  the  na- 
tions of  the  world." 

He  also  chose  the  greater  Capernaum  because  it  was 
the  focal  centre  from  which  the  great  international 
highways  radiated  in  all  directions.  Past  its  western 
suburbs  ran  the  main  caravan  road  from  Egypt  and 
Philistia  to  Damascus  and  Babylonia.  Other  roads  ran 
southward  to  Jericho  and  Jerusalem.  Another  great 
highway  ran  past  it  from  Arabia  northwestward  across 
the  plain  of  Genneseret  to  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  then 
on  to  Antioch,  Ephesus,  Corinth,  and  Rome.  It  is 
evident  that  Jesus,  not  Paul,  initiated  early  Christian- 
ity's broad  policy  of  establishing  fraternal  communities 
in  the  great  strategic  centres,  and  from  there  extending 
their  influence  to  the  smaller  cities  and  towns,  and 
thence  to  the  surrounding  country  districts.  This  was 
clearly  a  part  of  his  social  plan,  and  the  spread  of  these 
Christian  communities  to  Jericho,  Damascus,  Caesarea, 
and  Antioch  within  the  first  decade  after  his  death 
confirmed  its  practical  wisdom. 

In  Capernaum  Jesus  found  all  types  of  men,  women, 
and  children.  Here  were  presented  superlative  needs 
and  superlative  possibilities.  Here  every  phase  of  the 
social  problem  was  in  evidence.  Here  were  the  rich 
and  poor,  learned  and  ignorant,  honest  and  dishonest, 
happy  and  unhappy,  reputable  citizens  and  outcasts, 
the  well  and  the  sick.    With  each  of  these  classes  Jesus 


Jesus^  Social  Plan  39 

came  into  intimate  contact.  From  every  rank  he 
drew  the  followers  who  became  members  of  the  fra- 
ternal community  that  he  was  seeking  to  found.  A 
social  plan  that  succeeded  in  the  greater  Capernaum 
had  world-wide  possibilities.  That  great  metropolis, 
with  its  population  of  perhaps  a  quarter  of  a  million, 
was  a  fitting  laboratory  for  the  world's  greatest  social 
psychologist. 

Into  this  great  field  Jesus  threw  himself  with  untir- 
ing zeal  and  enthusiasm.  His  final  words,  as  he  left  it 
to  escape  the  treachery  of  the  Pharisees  and  of  Herod 
Antipas,  indicate  clearly  that  he  had  hoped  to  trans- 
form this  huge  city  into  one  great  fraternal  commu- 
nity: "Woe  to  you,  Chorazin  I  Woe  to  you,  Bethsaida  1 
For  had  the  marvellous  deeds  that  have  been  performed 
in  you  been  done  in  Tyre  and  Sidon,  they  would  have 
repented  in  sackcloth  and  ashes;  I  tell  you  it  will  be 
better  for  Tyre  and  Sidon  on  the  day  of  judgment  than 
for  you.  Will  you,  Capernaum,  be  exalted  to  the  sky  ? 
No,  you  will  go  down  to  destruction.  For  had  the 
marvellous  deeds  performed  in  you  been  done  in  Sod- 
om, it  would  have  remained  standing  until  this  day." 

To-day  the  site  of  the  greater  Capernaum  is  an  un- 
inhabited ruin.  A  dread  silence  has  settled  down  upon 
it.  Yet  no  student  of  history  can  for  a  moment  doubt 
the  implication  of  Jesus'  pathetic  words.  Capernaum 
might  to-day  and  through  the  intervening  centuries 
and  for  all  time  have  been  "exalted  to  the  sky"  had  its 
citizens  in  the  first  Christian  century  responded  to 
their  great  opportunity.    Then  and  there  the  problems 


40  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

common  to  all  human  society  might  have  been  solved. 
There  the  whole  world  might  have  beheld  the  glorious 
vision  of  a  vast  city  in  which  sin  and  sickness  and  suf- 
fering had  been  banished,  and  love  and  loyalty  and 
zeal  to  serve  the  common  cause  bound  all  together  into 
one  great  fraternal  community.  There  the  students  of 
all  nations  and  ages  might  have  studied  in  concrete 
form  the  principles  and  laws  that  lie  at  the  foundation 
of  a  perfect  society.  Within  even  the  limits  of  the 
first  century  the  Capernaum  plan  might  have  been 
transplanted  and  developed  in  all  the  great  cities  of 
the  earth. 

From  the  moment  that  Jesus  entered  Capernaum  he 
went  to  work  to  gather  about  him  and  train  a  band  of 
helpers  that  would  effect  the  great  transformation. 
He  did  not  make  the  mistake  of  many  later  social  crea- 
tors of  trusting  merely  to  external  organization.  He 
began  by  remaking  men  and  by  training  individual 
citizens.  He  personally  selected  each  of  his  helpers 
and  first  freed  their  bodies  from  disease,  their  minds 
from  error  and  prejudice,  and  their  hearts  from  hate 
and  jealousy.  In  turn  he  filled  their  minds  with  a 
broad,  practical  philosophy  of  life  and  their  hearts 
with  faith  and  love  and  the  desire  to  co-operate.  After 
he  had  trained  them  by  careful  teaching  and  thorough 
apprenticeship,  he  sent  them  forth  under  his  direction 
to  become  fishers  of  men — that  is,  to  attract  and  train 
definite  men  and  women,  so  that  they  also  might  be 
prepared  to  become  worthy  citizens  in  the  fraternal 
community. 


Jesus*  Social  Plan  41 

The  plan  was  as  simple  as  it  was  practical.  It  was 
in  perfect  accord  with  all  the  laws,  natural,  social,  and 
psychological,  that  later  scientific  study  has  disclosed. 
That  it  met  at  once  with  partial  success  is  an  estab- 
lished historic  fact,  for  of  the  five  hundred  disciples  to 
whom  Paul  refers  in  I  Corinthians  15:  6,  probably  the 
great  majority,  if  not  all,  belonged  to  the  Capernaum 
community.  But  it  is  equally  clear  that  Jesus'  suc- 
cess at  Capernaum  was  not  commensurate  with  his 
hopes  and  that  his  relative  failure  was  due  to  that 
which  the  Infinite  has  made  a  basic  principle  in  the 
universe — the  freedom  of  the  human  will.  The  con- 
vincing common  sense,  the  radiant  s^onpathy  and  love, 
and  the  attractive  social  plan  of  the  Master  Teacher 
were  not  able  to  conquer  the  fixed  habits  and  preju- 
dices and  hatreds  of  a  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  greater  Capernaum.  The  wooden  orthodoxy  and 
the  narrow  jealousy  of  the  Pharisees  led  them  to  block 
and  undermine,  rather  than  support  his  work.  The 
opposition  of  these  acknowledged  religious  leaders  con- 
fused the  minds  of  the  people.  How  electrical  and 
far-reaching  would  Jesus'  great  social  experiment  have 
been,  had  it  met  with  the  immediate  success  he  craved, 
only  the  imagination  can  picture.  That  from  Caper- 
naum might  have  gone  forth  mighty  influences  that 
would  have  quickly  transformed  human  society  as  a 
whole  is  not  beyond  the  realm  of  practical  possibility, 
for  the  world  was  closely  knit  together  in  the  first 
Christian  century  and  nothing  Is  more  potent  in  so- 
ciety than  practical  demonstration.    Even  as  it  was, 


42  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

the  social  leaven  that  Jesus  placed  in  greater  Caper- 
naum spread  with  remarkable  rapidity,  so  that  before 
the  close  of  the  first  Christian  century  fraternal  com- 
munities were  found  not  only  in  Damascus,  Csesarea, 
and  Antioch,  but  in  all  the  great  cities  and  even  the 
remote  provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

The  strength  of  Jesus'  social  plan  lay  in  its  simplic- 
ity. Society  in  the  first  century,  as  at  present,  had 
become  hopelessly  complex.  The  individual  was  but 
a  spoke  in  the  wheel  of  things.  He  was  so  enmeshed 
in  a  rigid  social  organization  that  he  had  few  oppor- 
tunities for  spontaneous  self-expression.  Jesus  quietly 
set  aside  all  this  complex  social  machinery  and  substi- 
tuted a  simple  neighborhood  organization,  so  simple 
that  its  members  were  unconscious  of  any  organization 
at  all.  The  warm,  fraternal  spirit  of  the  fraternal 
community,  which  was  simply  an  extension  of  the  high 
ideals  and  traditions  of  the  Jewish  home,  provided  the 
atmosphere  that  every  man,  and  especially  "the  lost," 
the  millions  of  detached  men,  women,  and  children  in 
the  old  Roman  Empire,  were  craving.  In  these  Chris- 
tian communities  they  found  friendship  and  good-will. 
If  they  were  needy,  here  they  were  sure  of  help.  If 
they  were  sad,  they  found  sympathy  and  comfort.  If 
they  stumbled  and  fell,  they  were  tenderly  lifted  up, 
given  counsel,  and  guided  in  the  way  of  life. 

Here  the  deepest  yearnings  of  their  hearts  were  sat- 
isfied, for  they  were  taught  to  listen  to  the  inward 
voice.  The  Master  himself  set  the  example  of  devot- 
ing many  hours  in  his  crowded  ministry  to  prayer  and 


Jesus'  Social  Plan  43 

meditation.  Under  his  guidance  they  learned  to  enter 
the  inner  chamber  of  their  souls,  and  there  to  gain 
peace,  joy,  and  inspiration  from  communion  with  him 
who  reveals  himself  to  all  who  seek  him  in  sincerity 
and  truth. 

The  fraternal  community  enabled  each  member  to 
gratify  his  higher  desire  for  self-expression.  Jesus  also 
had  the  marvellous  power  of  arousing  these  desires. 
The  needs  and  work  of  the  community  gave  each  mem- 
ber, however  great  or  however  humble  be  his  gifts, 
abundant  opportunity  to  use  them.  The  humblest 
could  enjoy  the  proud  consciousness  of  serving  the 
community,  even  if  it  be  only  in  serving  the  food  at 
the  common  meal.  Those  who  possessed  the  gifts  of 
teaching  or  preaching  or  healing  had  ample  oppor- 
tunity to  use  them  in  a  social  environment  that  was 
receptive  and  appreciative.  If  the  task  be  outside 
and  attended  with  danger,  those  who  served  were  al- 
ways sure  of  warm  support  and  sympathy  within  the 
community. 

Mark  tells  us  that  the  life  of  the  fraternal  community 
that  Jesus  founded  at  Capernaum  was  characterized 
by  a  joyousness  that  aroused  the  harsh  criticisms  of 
the  captious  Pharisees.  They  complained  that,  unlike 
John  the  Baptist,  Jesus  never  taught  his  followers  to 
fast.  The  Master  acknowledged  the  charge,  and  lik- 
ened their  lives  together  to  one  continuous  wedding- 
feast.  When  we  recall  that  a  wedding-feast  was  the 
one  event  in  the  ancient  East  that  brought  joy  and 
recreation  and  amusement  to  all  members  of  the  com- 


44  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

munity,  we  begin  to  gain  a  true  conception  of  the 
charm  of  that  community  life  which  Jesus  developed, 
and  to  understand  why  it  appealed  to  young  and  old 
alike.  Here  recreation  and  religion  were  perfectly 
blended.  Here  every  man  found  physical,  mental,  and 
spiritual  life,  and  that  in  abundant  measure.  Had  not 
the  Pharisees,  as  Jesus  said,  persistently  blocked  the 
door,  the  masses  would  undoubtedly  have  sought  ad- 
mission to  the  fraternal  community  in  great  numbers, 
for  we  are  told  that  the  common  people  heard  him 
gladly. 

Jesus  was  not  content  merely  to  open  wide  the  door 
to  all  who  were  seeking  fellowship  and  inspiration  to 
fuller  living.  From  the  first  he  began  to  train  his  dis- 
ciples that  they  might  go  forth  on  a  mission  of  healing, 
preaching,  and  teaching.  His  social  plan  included  an 
aggressive,  organized  missionary  propaganda.  He  not 
only  himself  sought  the  lost,  but  also  trained  and 
taught  his  followers  to  do  the  same.  This  fact  explains 
not  only  the  tremendous  drawing,  but  also  the  kinetic 
power  of  early  Christianity. 

To-day  every  individual  is  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously longing  for  a  fraternal  community  in  which 
he  can  find  sympathy,  good-will,  and  an  opportunity 
to  serve  his  fellow-men.  Capital  and  industry  are 
groping  for  a  common  basis  of  justice  and  co-operation, 
where  they  can  forget  their  present  destructive  feuds 
and  hatreds  and  join  in  conserving  their  mutual  inter- 
ests and  in  discharging  their  obligations  to  society. 
All  the  nations  of  the  earth  are  eager  to  perfect  an 


Jesus*  Social  Plan  45 

agreement  which  will  eliminate  the  horrible  wastage  of 
hate  and  war  and  enable  them  to  dwell  together  as 
one  great  family.  The  Christian  Church  is  also  seek- 
ing a  way  in  which  it  may  adequately  meet  the  crying 
needs  of  the  individual  and  of  society. 

Is  it  not  possible  that  Jesus'  social  plan  is  the  true 
and  only  way  so  to  adjust  the  individual  to  his  environ- 
ment that  he  will  find  that  which  he  is  seeking  ?  Is  it 
not  possible  that  Jesus'  plan  provides  the  only  practi- 
cal way  to  eliminate  the  disastrous  hatreds  and  wastage 
of  modern  industry,  and  to  bring  capital  and  labor  into 
effective  co-operation  ?  Is  it  not  possible  that  his  idea 
of  the  fraternal  community  is  the  only  satisfactory 
solution  of  our  international  problems  ?  Is  it  not  true 
that  his  simple  social  plan  represents  the  historic  com- 
mission of  the  Christian  Church,  and  that  the  Church's 
present  divisions  and  most  of  its  complex  machinery 
are  only  impedimenta?  Is  it  not  possible  that  a 
whole-hearted  effort  to  carry  through  his  social  plan 
in  this  plastic  twentieth  century  might  unite  not  only 
his  nominal  followers,  but  also  the  many  who  are  not 
now  reckoned  as  members  of  his  fold  ?  Upon  the  an- 
swers that  the  leaders  of  this  generation  make  to  these 
fundamental  questions  depends  the  future  of  our  civi- 
lization. To  the  leaders  in  our  Christian  institutions 
of  learning  we  look  to-day  for  affirmative  answers. 


PERSONAL  RELIGION  AND  PUBLIC  MORALS 

BY 

ROBERT  BRUCE  TAYLOR,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


PERSONAL  RELIGION  AND  PUBLIC  MORALS 

The  last  quarter  of  a  century  has  seen  a  vast  change 
in  the  general  attitude  toward  organized  religion.  To 
some  extent  that  change  has  had  its  points  of  pause 
and  punctuation;  we  could  tell  where  one  paragraph 
ended  and  another  began.  In  thought,  a  Robertson 
Smith  or  a  Briggs  case  marked  a  period.  The  real 
range  of  a  theological  debate  can  never  be  measured 
by  the  resolution  of  an  ecclesiastical  assembly.  Its 
main  repercussion  is  upon  the  crowd,  which  becomes 
gradually  conscious  of  the  significance  of  the  issue. 
The  great  change  has  come,  however,  almost  without 
observation,  and  it  may  be  said  to  have  aflFected  re- 
ligion rather  than  theology.  It  has  shown  itself  in 
lessened  church  attendance,  and  in  the  challenging  of 
the  right  of  the  church  to  assume  the  monopoly  of 
religious  interest.  The  reduction  in  the  number  of 
men  seeking  to  find  their  life-work  in  the  Christian 
ministry  is  a  grave  feature;  for  the  temper  of  the  mar- 
tyr and  the  soldier  is  not  dead  among  us  and  the  call 
for  sacrifice  has  always  in  it  a  peculiar  ring  and  com- 
pulsion. The  Christian  ministry  is  a  great  and  noble 
calling,  in  which  a  man,  if  he  is  to  have  any  happiness 
in  his  work,  must  deliberately  put  the  world  behind  his 
back.  But  that  particular  form  of  sacrifice  is  losing 
its  urgency.  The  war  revealed,  to  those  who  were  ac- 
tively engaged  in  it,  not  so  much  a  changed  condition 

49 


50  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

as  unpleasant  actualities  in  the  old  condition.  It  be- 
came wofully  apparent  that  religious  instruction  had 
not  penetrated  as  deeply  as  the  religious  organizations 
had  imagined.  One  never  knew  whether  to  wonder 
most  at  men's  ignorance  of  what  the  Christian  Church 
should  have  been  teaching  them,  or  at  their  indifference 
to  some  matters  which  the  peace  standard  of  domes- 
tic ethics  regarded  as  vital,  or  at  their  contmual  and 
magnificent  gaiety  of  spirit,  their  glorious  comrade- 
ship, their  mastery  of  fear.  The  war  showed  how  little 
conventional  religion  stood  for.  It  also  made  it  plain 
that  the  great  words  of  the  Gospel — joy,  peace,  love, 
righteousness,  sacrifice — ^were  of  the  very  heart  of  high 
conduct  as  men  understood  high  conduct,  face  to  face 
with  death,  in  those  most  desperate  conditions. 

If  one  asks  oneself  what  it  is  that  has  been  going  on 
beneath  the  surface  to  bring  about  so  profound  a 
change  in  religious  outlook,  one  may  say  that  it  has 
been  the  challenging  of  the  seat  of  authority  in  religion. 
In  organized  religion  there  have  been  two  main  con- 
ceptions of  the  seat  of  authority. 

The  Romanist  and  high-church  view  is  that  author- 
ity lies  in  the  Church,  in  its  continuity  of  tradition 
and  in  its  possession  of  sacramental  power.  If  men 
are  to  be  left  to  their  own  devices  there  will  be  anarchy 
in  religion.  But  if  they  will  but  look  back  to  the  very 
foundations  of  Christianity,  they  will  find  a  body  of 
truth  steadily  handed  down,  and  an  efficacy  communi- 
cated by  the  laying  on  of  episcopal  hands,  transmitted 
from  one  generation  to  another.    They  will  find  a 


Personal  Religion  and  Public  Morals  51 

divinely  guided  history  of  councils  and  creeds  through 
which  the  deposit  of  truth  has  been  safeguarded;  and 
the  doubter  may  commit  himself  with  certainty  to  this 
system,  which  is  the  embodiment  not  only  of  divine 
truth  but  of  human  wisdom  and  practical  knowledge. 
A  Scottish  Presbyterian  is  not  predisposed  to  favor 
such  a  conception,  but  one  has  to  admit  its  power. 
The  majority  of  mankind  are  neither  able  nor  willing 
to  examine  a  long  course  of  church  history  for  them- 
selves, and  a  strong,  dogmatic  assertion  and  a  definite 
historical  position  have  a  vast  power  with  a  certain 
conservative  and  clinging  and  devotional  t}^e  of  mind. 
There  are  many  people  who  have  not  sufficient  intellec- 
tual daring  to  wrestle  constantly  with  things  for  them- 
selves. They  want  certainty.  And  so  Newman  and 
Adelaide  Procter  and  many  other  equally  pure  souls 
have  found  rest  in  this  obedience  to  authority.  There 
is,  however,  particularly  in  this  new  land,  a  different 
temper  springing  up.  The  community  spirit  seeks  in- 
clusion rather  than  exclusion.  It  tries  to  use  different 
gifts  without  judging  between  them.  It  will  not  nullify 
categories;  it  will  simplify  them.  The  question  of 
apostolic  succession,  except  where  men  are  still  held 
to  belief  in  it  by  ecclesiastical  authority,  is  ceasing  to 
be  an  issue,  just  because  this  practically  minded  world 
does  not  see  any  such  monopoly  of  spiritual  power  in 
one  particular  church.  And,  with  regard  to  the  per- 
manence of  any  creed,  we  are  in  an  atmosphere  which 
tends  more  and  more  to  utter  its  faith  in  the  language 
of  the  day.    A  man  may  be  very  near  to  his  Lord  and 


52  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

yet  unable  to  discern  his  Lord  in  the  Athanasian  Creed. 
The  process  is  too  long  which  requires  that  the  believer 
search  back  through  all  those  centuries  of  tangled  his- 
torical stuff  before  he  finds  his  Master.  He  does  not 
need  to  be  either  a  prophet  or  the  son  of  a  prophet 
who  declares  confidently  that  the  sacramentarian,  his- 
torically exclusive,  miraculous,  sanction  of  religion  is 
likely  to  become  less  and  less  powerful. 

Is,  then,  the  seat  of  authority  for  religion  in  the 
claims  of  Holy  Scripture?  This  has  been  the  appeal 
of  the  Reformed  churches.  At  the  Reformation,  when 
the  assertion  was  again  made  of  the  rights  of  the  human 
spirit  to  come  directly  into  fellowship  with  Christ, 
Scripture  of  necessity  took  a  place  of  new  importance. 
It  was  the  road  of  direct  access  to  God.  One  can 
understand  how,  after  being  bound  in  the  chains  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  men  and  women  found 
in  Scripture  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God. 
Is  it  any  wonder  that  they  brooded  over  it  until  even 
the  translations  themselves  seemed  to  be  the  very 
breath  of  the  Almighty  ?  But  the  earliest  and  greatest 
of  the  reformers  had  no  such  cast-iron  view  of  verbal 
inspiration  as  afterward  came  to  prevail,  in  its  turn 
to  become  a  tyranny  just  as  exacting  as  the  old.  Both 
Luther  and  Calvin  knew  far  too  much  of  religious 
history  and  of  the  Bible  to  be  led  into  any  such  un- 
bending position.  Luther,  for  instance,  had  his  pro- 
nounced views  upon  the  Epistle  of  James,  which  he 
would  have  excluded  from  the  Canon.  He  was  well 
aware  of  the  doubt  which  had  prevailed  as  to  the  can- 


Personal  Religion  and  Public  Morals  53 

onicity  of  the  splendid  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  The 
preacher  of  to-day  is  not  wise  who  neglects  Calvin  on 
the  Psalms  and  Calvin  on  Isaiah;  but  Calvin  saw 
clearly  that  there  were  Aramaic  elements  in  the  139th 
Psalm,  and  that  the  ascription  of  it  to  David  was  im- 
possible. Gradually,  however,  what  was  really  the 
record  of  a  revelation  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  reve- 
lation itself.  It  is  not  the  New  Testament  which  re- 
veals God.  It  is  Christ  who  reveals  God,  and  it  is  the 
New  Testament  which  gives  the  story  of  the  incarna- 
tion of  the  Most  High.  In  the  post-Reformation  days, 
however,  when  the  Reformation,  as  a  mighty  revival 
of  personal  religion,  was  giving  place  to  the  time  when 
men  were  trying  to  state  in  logical  and  philosophical 
form  those  wonderful  experiences  which  they  had  lived 
through  of  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Bible 
came  to  be  used  as  though  it  were  a  collection  of  proof- 
texts.  A  creed  is  obviously  the  product  of  the  time 
when  the  first  overwhelming  flood  of  enthusiasm  has 
passed,  and  men  have  begun  to  reason  about  the  ex- 
periences through  which  they  have  lived.  Thus,  in 
the  seventeenth  century  the  doctrinaire  view  of  Scrip- 
ture stiffened.  There  was  no  attempt  to  understand 
the  history  underlying  this  great  library  of  sacred  writ- 
ings. So  truculent  a  book  as  Esther  was  believed  to 
be,  every  word  of  it,  the  breathing  of  the  Almighty, 
because  it  found  itself  within  the  sacred  boards,  while  so 
glorious  a  record  as  First  Maccabees  was  ranked  with 
any  other  piece  of  secular  history  because  its  date  pre- 
cluded its  inclusion  within  the  Canon.    There  was  no 


64  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day  * 

knowledge  of  the  fact  that  the  early  narratives  of 
Genesis  had  a  relationship  to  the  Babylonian  cosmog- 
ony; that,  the  Septuagint  being  witness,  there  had  been 
widely  varying  texts  of  the  Book  of  Jeremiah;  that  the 
Hebrew  text  of  Hosea  was  in  places  in  such  confusion 
that  anj^thing  more  than  a  conjectural  translation  was 
impossible.  The  general  and  w^ell-founded  belief  that 
Scripture  was  the  Word  of  God  was  stretched  until  it 
became  a  new  legalism,  until  it  covered  every  word  of 
the  Authorized  Version,  and,  in  the  minds  of  many, 
every  comma  of  the  splendid  translation.  That  was 
an  inflexible,  an  uncritical,  an  unscholarly  position 
that  was  perilous.  In  the  minds  of  multitudes  it  linked 
the  truth  in  Jesus  with  some  conundrum  about  Cain's 
wife.  It  put  the  great  causes  of  religion  at  the  mercy 
of  the  negative  and  unbelieving  critic.  Many  of  us 
remember  still  the  shock  it  w^as  to  our  faith  when  we 
found  that  Scripture  was  being  examined  by  the  ordi- 
nary methods  of  critical  and  linguistic  analysis;  and 
yet  we  now  realize  that  it  is  through  this  liberty  that 
our  faith  has  been  re-established  and  set  foursquare 
to  all  the  winds  that  blow. 

The  present  condition  of  things  is  that,  while  schol- 
ars have  made  the  adjustment  in  their  own  minds,  the 
great  majority  of  believing  people  have  not.  That 
distinction  between  the  revelation  and  the  record  of  it 
is  a  delicate  and  subtle  thing  compared  with  the  direct 
and  unsophisticated  view  that  every  word  within  the 
boards  that  contain  Holy  Scripture  is  absolutely  in- 
errant,  in  the  most  literal  sense  of  the  term.    Piety 


Personal  Religion  and  Public  Morals  55 

and  Intellectual  acumen  do  not  always  go  together. 
Those  who  know  out  of  a  long  experience  what  Scrip- 
ture has  been  to  them,  in  strengthening  and  comfort, 
are  jealous  with  a  godly  zeal  when  they  think  they  see 
heedless  hands  laid  upon  the  ark.  And  so  some  good 
people  have  tried  to  beat  back  the  tide  by  accusing 
scholars  of  unbelief,  and  again  and  again  the  attempt 
has  been  made  to  control  the  teaching  in  theological 
colleges  in  the  interest  of  a  particular  theory  of  in- 
spiration. The  result  is  that  the  teaching  of  the  pul- 
pits has  often  become  suspect  by  men  poles  apart  in 
their  general  view.  Some,  clinging  to  the  old  ways, 
have  been  looking  for  heresy;  others,  feeling  the  new 
breath,  have  been  wondering  whether  the  preacher 
was  frank.  There  has  thus  been  unsettlement  of  a 
most  profound  character,  and  it  is  unsettlement  upon 
a  really  first-class  issue.  The  Protestant  world  as  a 
whole  has  yet  to  be  brought  to  understand  that  the 
believer's  faith  in  his  Lord  is  something  that  will  be 
affected  in  no  way  by  a  discussion  of  the  question 
whether  the  sun  did  actually  stand  still  upon  Gibeon. 
Such  a  faith  rests  on  something  much  more  precious 
than  the  authority  even  of  the  written  Word;  it  rests 
on  the  witness  of  the  spirit  of  the  believer  to  the  reve- 
lation of  God  as  he  finds  it  in  Christ. 

If,  on  the  one  hand,  this  unsettlement  has  caused 
pessimism  and  distress  on  the  part  of  those  who  cannot 
see  that  a  living  faith  is  bound  to  be  a  growing  thing, 
an  organism  and  not  a  crystal,  it  has  brought  about 
a  very  different  attitude  on  the  part  of  many  others, 


56  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

who  feel  that  certain  obvious  religious  duties  are  in- 
cumbent upon  them,  even  if  they  may  never  be  able  to 
solve  for  themselves  such  questions  as  modern  scholar- 
ship has  raised.  The  social  and  business  life  of  to-day 
has  one  fine  feature,  unfortunately  quite  dissociated 
from  the  Christian  Church,  although  created  largely 
by  Christian  people.  Men,  immersed  in  business  and 
professional  life,  have  yet  religion  in  their  hearts;  they 
know  the  need,  for  their  own  spiritual  health  as  well 
as  for  the  good  of  the  community,  of  guarding  against 
the  tendency  to  selfishness  and  absorption  in  gain. 
And  so  we  have  springing  up  everywhere  Rotarian 
Clubs  and  Kiwanian  Clubs  and  many  other  organiza- 
tions of  similar  kind,  which  foster  a  genial  and  kindly 
rivalry  in  well-doing.  Once  a  week  men  gather  and 
refuse  to  admit  that  they  are  growing  old.  They  laugh 
and  are  happy.  They  are  looking  around  for  some 
good  thing  to  do.  Is  it  an  industrial  training  home 
for  boys,  away  among  the  mountains,  in  the  best  of 
surroundings,  far  from  the  city  streets;  is  it  the  in- 
stallation of  a  new  hot-water  apparatus  in  their  city 
hospital — to  take  two  instances  known  to  me  of  the 
activities  of  a  Rotarian  and  a  Kiwanian  Club — they 
throw  themselves  into  the  effort  with  zeal,  and  get,  as 
surely  they  should  do,  joy  for  themselves  in  the  secur- 
ing of  joy  for  others.  Behind  it  there  lies  the  feeling 
that  whatever  the  uncertainties  of  faith  may  be,  there 
are  certain  duties  incumbent  upon  all  who  love  their 
kind.  It  is  better  to  be  unselfish  than  selfish,  better 
to  be  glad  than  frowning,  better  to  come  out  of  your 


Personal  Religion  and  Public  Morals  57 

isolation  and  know  your  neighbor  and  competitor  than 
to  retire  into  your  shell  and  imagine  all  kinds  of  evil 
about  his  persistent  activities.  Such  a  movement, 
spreading  with  somewhat  of  the  fire  of  a  crusade,  is 
just  another  evidence  of  the  working  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  another  proof  that  religion  is  the  most  pro- 
nounced and  permanent  bent  of  the  human  mind. 
Where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty,  and 
the  Spirit  will  always  manifest  himself  in  varying 
modes. 

What  we  are  faced  with  to-day  is  not  the  destruction 
of  religion  but  the  change  in  its  form  and  outlook.  The 
permanent  thing  in  the  Christian  religion,  the  unique 
thing,  is  that  it  has  been  the  attempt  to  set  forth  Jesus 
of  Nazareth.  Everything  else  has  been  temporal,  but 
that  has  been  permanent.  As  men  look  back  over 
history  they  see  that  many  expressions  of  that  loyalty 
have  become  antiquated,  and  have,  without  any  active 
hostility  on  the  part  of  reformers,  simply  ceased  to  be. 
The  human  mind  has  no  longer  regarded  them  as  ade- 
quate. The  study  of  a  doctrine  such  as  the  Atonement 
is  the  best  of  all  evidence  for  the  fact.  On  so  great  a 
truth  the  greatest  thinkers  of  all  times  have  exercised 
themselves,  and  the  statements  made  of  the  doctrine 
have  been  made  in  terms  intelligible  to  the  men  of  the 
age  in  which  they  were  made.  Books  which  deal  with 
the  subject  of  the  Atonement  are  invariably  stronger 
on  their  historical  and  critical  than  on  their  construc- 
tive sides.  It  is  easy  to  understand  now  the  defects 
of  so  great  and  permanent  a  book  as  Anselm's  Cur 


58  Chrisiianiiy  and  Problems  of  To-day 

Deus  Homo,  or,  leaping  over  many  hundreds  of  years, 
to  question  the  adequacy  of  the  statements  of  Robertson 
of  Brighton,  or  of  MacLeod  Campbell.  Even  the 
greatest  writers,  when  they  deal  with  eternal  truth, 
the  Apostle  Paul  himself  being  witness,  write  in  the 
language  of  their  time  for  the  men  of  their  time, 
and  are  influenced  in  their  statements  by  the  ideas 
that  are  in  the  air  in  their  time.  The  truth  itself  is  a 
matter  of  Christian  experience,  whether  it  be  taught 
by  the  old  women  of  Bedford  to  John  Bunyan,  or  by 
the  thoroughly  equipped  scholar  of  to-day  to  a  student 
who  has  all  his  senses  exercised  to  receive  the  truth. 
But,  while  mediaeval  thought  has  few  greater  names 
than  that  of  Anselm,  Cur  Deus  Homo  is  now  studied 
exactly  like  Faraday's  Researches,  only  as  a  matter 
of  history.  Human  thought  has  left  Anselm  behind.. 
To  the  trained  thinker,  of  course,  this  position  is  the 
merest  commonplace.  The  wine  of  divine  truth  is 
ever  new,  and  it  has  to  be  put  into  new  bottles.  He 
does  an  infinite  disservice  to  faith  who  strives  to  tie 
it  indefinitely  to  particular  statements.  The  heresy  of 
yesterday  may  be  the  orthodoxy  of  to-day,  and  the 
orthodoxy  of  to-day  the  exhausted  formula  of  to-mor- 
row. The  men  of  this  generation  read  with  amaze- 
ment the  attacks  of  the  sixties  on  Darwin,  attacks  so 
full  of  acerbity,  so  reckless  in  their  bandying  of  evil 
charges  and  in  their  ascription  of  anti-religious  mo- 
tives. And  to-day,  while  the  biologist  may  still  de- 
bate the  particular  issue,  we  know  that  the  conception 
of  continuity  and  development  has  been  of  enormous 


Personal  Religion  and  Public  Morals  59 

service  in  every  range  of  thought.  The  first  debates 
on  the  Origin  of  Species  have  given  place  to  a  general 
conception.  Einstein,  in  the  same  way,  may  influence 
profoundly  not  only  physical  but  theological  and  ethi- 
cal problems. 

And  so  those  who  to-day  have  faith  in  a  living  and 
personal  Christ  must  not  lose  courage,  even  if  they  do 
find  the  envelope  in  which  that  faith  was  wrapped 
being  torn  asunder.  This  particular  envelope  may 
have  served  its  turn.  We  have  this  treasure  in  earthen 
vessels.  We  may  ask  as  a  matter  of  intellectual  curi- 
osity as  to  the  form  in  which  men  expressed  their  belief 
some  centuries  ago,  but  the  vital  thing  for  us  is  that 
to-day  we  shall  have  such  a  form  as  shall  be  intelligible 
and  arresting  for  us  and  our  contemporaries.  Wher- 
ever the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  quick  there  will  always  be 
the  double  process  in  action,  the  challenging  of  old 
forms  and  the  creation  of  new.  The  speech  in  the 
process  may  vary  from  generation  to  generation,  but 
the  process  itself  is  a  symptom  of  life.  The  desire  for 
change  is  no  evidence  of  impiety;  it  may  be  the  setting 
forth  of  the  prophet.  The  ages  which  are  the  ages  of 
godlessness  are  those  in  which  there  has  been  no  chal- 
lenging of  the  accepted  thing.  In  social  as  in  religious 
life  there  are  always  multitudes  whose  motto  is  "  Leave 
well  alone."  The  position  is  a  complete  begging  of 
the  question.  Is  the  situation  really  "well"?  Many 
to-day  in  the  Old  Country  sigh  for  the  industrial  con- 
ditions of  forty  years  ago,  when  labor  was  subservient 
and  cheap,  and  when  taxation  was  low.    At  that  time 


60  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

it  never  seemed  to  occur  to  any  one  that  there  was 
something  wrong  with  a  system  in  which  one-third  of 
the  population  of  a  great  city  Kke  Glasgow  lived  in 
houses  of  one  room,  where  women  went  barefoot 
throughout  the  winter  months,  where  the  question  of 
the  next  meal  was  an  insistent  one  with  tens  of  thou- 
sands. Because  the  system  had  existed  so  long,  the 
sufferers  under  it  did  not  challenge  it,  while  those  who 
profited  by  it  had  no  sense  of  the  anomaly  of  a  situa- 
tion which  worked  comfortably  for  them.  It  was  not 
that  men  were  heartless  or  unbelieving.  They  were 
tender  in  their  affections  and  quick  with  their  chari- 
ties. But  the  existence  of  this  condition  of  great  wealth 
alongside  of  abject  poverty  and  degradation  was  re- 
garded with  the  inevitableness  of  fate.  It  existed  and 
therefore  it  was  accepted.  It  had  the  sanction  of  age 
and  was  not  to  be  challenged.  The  public  conscience 
was  not  awake.  There  was  no  vision  and  the  people 
perished.  The  last  seven  years  have  wrought  a  mighty 
change.  Apart  from  any  immediate  economic  issue 
there  has  been  an  alteration  in  the  general  attitude 
toward  the  question  of  wages.  A  community  is  not 
stable  in  its  ordering  nor  is  it  genuinely  prosperous  if 
one  main  element  in  its  financing  is  the  maintenance 
of  vast  industries  by  labor  so  cheap  as  to  be  always 
upon  the  verge  of  destitution.  The  economic  consid- 
erations are  not  the  only  ones,  nor  indeed  are  they  the 
primary  ones.  A  healthy  and  contented  population  is 
real  wealth.  A  generation  ago  our  cities  emptied  their 
filth  into  the  rivers  and  lakes  at  their  doors,  and  then 


Personal  Religion  and  Public  Morals  61 

used  dredges  to  remove  the  sludge.  Now,  under  new 
methods,  unclean  products  are  purified  by  chemical  or 
bacteriological  processes;  the  effluent  is  clean  and  in- 
nocuous, and  there  is  no  need  for  dredging.  A  great 
deal  of  the  social  rescue  work  and  philanthropy  of  past 
years  has  been  a  beginning  at  the  wrong  end.  Drunk- 
enness and  an  iron  social  system  manufactured  the 
criminal,  the  wastrel,  the  lunatic,  and  we  dealt  with 
the  waste  product.  Now  we  are  trying  to  keep  our 
rivers  clean. 

A  change  of  similar  character,  but  even  more  rapid 
in  its  operation,  is  taking  place  in  our  thoughts  of  re- 
ligion. It  is  coming  about  rather  by  the  opening  of 
the  eyes  than  by  any  special  process  of  reasoning  or  by 
any  definite  challenging  of  old  methods.  We  are  be- 
coming not  a  little  wearied  of  the  tyranny  of  organiza- 
tion. We  are  afflicted  by  "drives"  of  all  sorts;  by  vast 
conceptions  of  "the  world  for  Christ  in  this  genera- 
tion," while  the  streams  of  Christian  thought  are  all 
the  while  running  shallower  and  more  shallow,  with 
less  and  less  power  to  drive  anything.  In  the  States, 
as  in  Canada,  there  have  been  great  campaigns  for 
funds  which  also  tried  to  be  campaigns  for  spiritual 
results.  It  has  been  discovered  to  be  an  easier  thing 
to  raise  money  than  to  quicken  the  spirit.  Life  re- 
mains as  materialistic  and  as  worldly  as  before,  and 
the  temperature  is  dropping  as  with  the  coming  of  an 
east  wind  on  the  Maine  coast.  Theologically  in  both 
countries  we  are  still  inclined  to  fight  for  a  former  con- 
dition of  things  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  has  ceased 


62  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

to  have  power.  It  is  our  burden,  as  It  is  our  glory,  to 
stand  in  difficult  days.  We  shall  all  the  sooner  come 
to  grips  with  the  real  issue  if  we  understand  that  it  is 
our  business  to  set  forth  the  undying  Christ  as  we 
know  him,  and  not  to  resuscitate,  if  that  were  possible, 
the  forms  and  phrases  and  intellectualisms  of  an  age 
that  is  gone.  Back  to  Christ  is  the  necessity — not  the 
Christ  of  the  Creeds  compounded  with  the  technical 
terms  of  Greek  philosophy  or  the  juristic  outlook  of 
Roman  law,  but  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels.  Any  reli- 
gious awakening  which  is  going  to  move  the  common 
weal  w-ill  begin  in  a  revival  of  personal  religion.  Pub- 
lic morals  are  what  personal  religion  makes  them. 
The  power-house  is  more  vital  than  the  transmission- 
plant.  \^^lereve^  one  looks  it  is  to  find  that  great 
public  movements  have  had  their  origin  in  the  hearts 
of  consecrated  men  and  women.  Religion  does  not 
suffer  by  changing  its  form;  it  will  founder  if  it  be  not 
ever  related  afresh  to  Jesus. 

It  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  an  inquiring  age 
like  this  will  never  submit  itself  to  an  intellectual  posi- 
tion which  presents  itself  merely  on  the  ground  of 
authority.  The  Reformation  won  the  right  to  think, 
and  in  this  we  shall  not  be  less  than  our  fathers.  What- 
ever we  believe  must  be  in  harmony  with  our  reason 
and  our  experience.  This  does  not  mean  that  those 
who  exercise  this  right  to  think  are  become  rationalists. 
We  know  ourselves  everywhere  to  be  surrounded  by 
the  evidences  of  a  divine  purpose:  for  us  the  things 
which  are  not  seen  are  eternal.     We  find  in  the  history 


Personal  Religion  and  Public  Morals  63 

of  to-day — in  the  history  of  those  past  seven  tangled 
and  tragic  years — clear  manifestations  of  the  hand  of 
God.  But  we  believe  that  in  the  interpretation  of 
Jesus  personal  experience  must  always  have  a  major 
part.  Our  faith  must  be  something  not  merely  per- 
sonal to  ourselves  but  of  which  we  can  give  some  sort 
of  account  to  others.  Christ  spoke  no  more  incisive 
word  than  this:  "Sayest  thou  this  thing  of  thyself,  or 
did  others  tell  it  thee  of  me  ? " 

There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  dire  need  there 
is  of  such  an  awakening  by  which  men  and  women 
may  once  again  be  turned  to  spiritual  things.  War  is, 
under  all  conditions,  and  even  when  waged  for  the 
purest  of  motives,  an  unmitigated  evil.  The  saddest 
things  in  war  are  not  the  deaths  in  action.  Abnormal 
conditions,  which  bring  together  millions  of  men  in  a 
cause  in  which  the  sense  of  personal  responsibility  is 
merged  in  the  sacrifice  for  a  general  purpose,  produce 
abnormal  results.  The  old  moorings  are  lifted.  The 
old  restraints,  so  largely  the  result  of  environment  and 
of  local  opinion  and  knowledge,  cease  to  operate.  The 
sense  of  "mine"  and  "thine"  is  loosened.  Continence 
ceases  to  be  a  primal  virtue.  The  idle  become  yet 
more  idle  and  the  reckless  yet  more  reckless.  And  if 
the  results  upon  the  men  w^ho  have  seen  service  have 
been  thus  evil,  the  effects  on  the  stay-at-home  com- 
munity have  been  even  more  evil  because  less  gross. 
Money  has  been  made  in  great  quantity  by  those  who 
have  no  sense  of  the  stewardship  of  wealth,  and  has 
been  displayed  with  an  aggressiveness  that  only  em- 


64  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

bitters  the  way  of  simple  and  modest  people.  If  the 
morals  of  men  have  deteriorated,  women  may  well 
consider  whether  their  fashions  of  dress  have  not  con- 
tributed largely  to  the  general  demoralization.  There 
were  periods  when  lewdness  advertised  itself  by  its 
garb  and  indecency  wore  a  uniform.  It  is  not  possi- 
ble now  to  draw  any  large  generalizations.  The  pun- 
gent definition  of  the  modern  novel  as  the  kind  of  book 
that  no  nice  girl  would  allow  her  mother  to  read  may 
or  may  not  be  justified,  but  a  glance  through  the  pages 
of  the  cheap  American  story  magazine  will  leave  no 
one  in  uncertainty  as  to  the  kind  of  thing  that  is  ap- 
parently most  marketable.  Any  one  to-day  who  takes 
a  grave  view  of  moral  and  religious  conditions  need 
not  be  afraid  of  being  counted  a  misanthrope.  Public 
life  will  always  reflect  not  inaccurately  private  condi- 
tions. If  ever  there  was  a  time  when  those  who  name 
the  name  of  Christ  required  to  reflect  the  character  of 
Christ  it  is  now. 

Suppose,  then,  we  come  to  Jesus  and  ask  ourselves 
what  were  the  characteristics  of  the  life  he  lived  and 
the  faith  he  taught,  should  we  not  set  down  some  broad 
and  simple  issues  which  current  religious  life  might 
well  be  reminded  of? 

1.  The  Joy  That  He  Brought. 

When  our  Lord  came  it  was  to  a  world  which  was 
shrouded  with  the  idea  of  demons  and  vindictive  spiri- 
tual powers.  That  dark  time  between  the  close  of  the 
Old  Testament  period  and  the  beginning  of  the  New 
had  been  a  forcing  ground  for  all  such  thoughts.    The 


Personal  Religion  and  Public  Morals  65 

powers  of  evil  were  serried  ranks  over  against  the  power 
of  God,  and  in  the  hands  of  those  powers  of  evil  Pilate 
and  Herod  were  mere  puppets.  St.  Paul,  for  instance, 
speaks  of  the  wisdom  of  God,  and  then  he  adds:  "  Which 
none  of  the  princes  of  this  world  knew,  for  had  they 
known  it,  they  would  not  have  crucified  the  Lord  of 
Glory"  (1  Cor.  2:8).  "It  was  not  of  Pontius  Pilate 
and  of  Herod  that  Paul  was  speaking,  but  of  things  far 
more  awful  and  far  more  powerful — thrones,  dominions, 
principalities,  and  powers — as  he  calls  them  elsewhere 
the  world  rulers  of  this  darkness,  and  at  their  head  is 
the  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air"  (Glover,  Jesus  in 
Experience,  page  1). 

Not  only  on  the  side  of  the  Jews  was  this  terror  of 
hidden  and  revengeful  and  incalculable  powers  felt. 
The  Greek-speaking  world  had  become  permeated  by 
Mithraism  with  its  hierarchies  of  evil  potentates,  and 
as  a  result  men  lived  in  gloom  and  in  a  temper  which 
made  the  propitiation  of  the  unseen  a  main  element  in 
their  religion.  This  was  swept  away  not  so  much  by 
what  Jesus  said  as  by  what  he  was,  and  the  New  Tes- 
tament, as  the  result,  is  the  most  joyous  of  books. 
Our  Lord  revealed  the  Father;  there  was  none  between 
the  Father  and  himself.  He  was  the  Door;  not  only 
were  there  no  other  doors,  but  there  was  no  necessity 
for  other  doors.  He  came  to  give  life  and  more  abun- 
dant life.  He  linked  himself  deliberately  with  those 
Old  Testament  Messianic  passages  which  declared  that 
there  was  liberty  for  those  who  were  in  bondage.  He 
overstepped  the  inhibitions  and  prohibitions  of  eccle- 


66  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

siasticism.  He  took  the  Jewish  law,  and,  reaching 
through  the  letter  to  the  spirit,  he  tore  off  the  ac- 
cretions which  had  overlain  the  original  purifying  and 
liberating  purpose.  He  declared  the  spiritual  man- 
hood of  believers  and  invited  those  who  cast  in  their 
lot  with  him  to  take  up  their  great  inheritance. 

It  is  in  the  setting  forth  of  Christ  that  the  New  Tes- 
tament is  self-evidencing.  No  theory  as  to  its  origin 
and  descent  is  needed  to  guarantee  its  inspiration. 
The  evidence  of  experience  goes  to  show  that  the  New 
Testament  has  power  within  itself.  It  is  the  word  of 
God  because  it  effectively  conveys  the  message  of  God. 
Its  glow,  its  simplicity,  is  due  to  this,  that  it  was 
written  by  men  who  had  just  come  through  an  over- 
whelming religious  experience,  an  experience  differing 
in  kind  but  related  in  each  case  to  the  same  supreme 
Source.  In  the  case  of  a  great  work  of  art  we  are  able 
to  trace  an  origin  and  an  evolution.  The  development 
may  be  rapid  but  there  is  demonstrable  sequence  be- 
tween the  Byzantine  art  and  Giotto,  between  Giotto 
and  the  great  Umbrians.  In  pure  literature  the  mas- 
ter does  not  arise  like  some  volcano  from  the  midst  of 
a  plain.  He  has  his  predecessors  in  form,  and  his  rivals 
differ  only  in  degree.  But  in  the  case  of  a  religious 
movement,  the  first  burst  is  the  most  powerful,  the 
first  vision  the  most  clear.  Every  effect  must  have  an 
adequate  cause.  What  Cause  was  it  which  made  of 
these  plain  disciples  literary  and  religious  figures  of  in- 
comparable power  and  dignity?  Who  of  mortals  can 
have  taught  the  writer  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  the  inter- 


Personal  Religion  and  Public  Morals  67 

pretation  that  he  has  to  hand  on  to  us  ?  The  power  of 
the  written  Gospel  is  due  to  the  unique  power  that  was 
at  work  in  these  men's  hearts.  After  they  were  gone 
other  Christian  writers  arose,  better  equipped  in  schol- 
arship, and  men  of  true  piety  as  well,  but  they  have 
left  nothing  that  can  be  mentioned  in  the  same  breath 
with  those  narratives  of  the  life  of  Christ,  with  the  tor- 
rent of  the  Apostle  Paul.  Those  who  were  nearest  the 
source  received  most  of  the  light.  No  naturalistic  ex- 
planation has  ever  done  anything  to  solve  the  riddle 
of  those  New  Testament  writings.  An  exercised  Chris- 
tian experience  carries  the  truth.  Almost  all  of  those 
to  whom  we  owe  the  New  Testament  died  violent 
deaths,  but  their  hearts  were  filled  with  singing,  and 
their  tribulations  were  matters  only  of  joy.  Base  the 
inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  on  their  universal  and 
ever  youthful  experience,  and  nothing  can  move  the 
authority  of  the  Gospels.  Rest  it  on  some  theory  of 
verbal  inerrancy,  and  it  is  shaken  by  every  negative 
critic.  The  vital  question  with  regard  to  the  New 
Testament  is  w^hether  it  does  or  does  not  reveal  Jesus 
as  God  in  the  flesh.  If  it  does  this,  then  every  other 
question  as  to  the  mere  harmony  of  this  account  and 
that  becomes  almost  irrelevant.  We  can  admit  and 
must  admit  the  human  element.  God  works  through 
personalities,  not  through  colorless  nonentities.  Every 
experienced  Christian  is  a  separate  instrument,  giving 
forth  a  separate  tone.  And  men  rejoice  in  the  New 
Testament  because  other  men  two  thousand  years  ago 
rejoiced,  and  their  gladness  and  release  still  sound  true. 


68  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

Those  who  grasp  this  thought  enter  into  the  glorious 
liberty  of  the  children  of  God.  To-day  all  kinds  of 
demons,  even  though  they  may  not  call  themselves 
such,  are  supposed  to  be  holding  the  ground  between 
the  truth-seeker  and  Jesus.  It  may  be  the  general 
dread  of  life  which  always  sees  the  possibilities  of  doom 
in  to-morrow;  it  may  be  some  carrying  over  into  the 
spiritual  sphere  of  an  analogy  from  the  physical  law  of 
causation;  it  may  be  some  visualizing  of  the  past, 
which  makes  reparation  appear  to  be  a  prerequisite  of 
any  approach  to  a  new  life.  Alas,  reparation  is  no 
longer  possible  for  most  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  fail- 
ures, and  in  any  case  the  kind  of  man  we  have  become 
is  a  much  more  important  matter  than  the  mistakes 
which  may  come  back  to  us  on  the  selective  wings  of 
memory.  And  then  there  are  other  fears  which  deal 
not  so  much  with  spiritual  things  as  with  material 
and  personal  conditions.  Not  a  few  are  haunted  by 
their  own  suspicious  natures.  No  man  is  to  them 
wholly  spontaneous  or  open-handed.  The  motive  be- 
hind the  generous  or  the  brotherly  thing  must  be 
sought,  and  that  motive  is  invariably  found  to  be 
something  mean  or  selfish.  How  can  there  be  any 
joy  in  the  heart  when  there  is  this  suspicion  of  one's 
fellow?  And  others  are  dogged  by  their  anxieties 
about  their  own  ill  health.  One's  memories  of  the 
Riviera  are  sufficient  to  induce  one  to  view  Christian 
Science  with  a  kindly  eye.  Those  who  have  had  the 
easiest  of  lives  and  endless  leisure  in  which  to  indulge 
their  whims  cannot  use  the  gifts  they  have  by  reason 


Personal  Religion  and  Public  Morals  69 

of  the  overstrain  they  would  incur!  As  if  life  were 
worth  having  on  the  terms  of  a  constant  h^^jochondria. 
And  others  again  are  haunted  by  their  fear  for  their 
own  reputation.  They  have  to  dress  in  a  certain  way, 
walk  with  a  certain  gait,  live  in  a  certain  type  of  house, 
spend  money  at  a  certain  rate,  choose  their  friends 
among  those  who  will  be  useful  to  them,  speak  the  safe 
and  colorless  theory  when  epigram  is  on  their  tongue 
and  provocativeness  in  their  heart — all  because  they 
have  to  maintain  a  reputation.  Yet,  He  made  himself 
of  no  reputation,  and  because  He  sought  only  to  live  in 
dependence  on  his  Father  He  had  no  fear,  no  divided 
mind,  no  anxiety,  only  joy  and  peace  in  believing. 

Is  not  the  recovery  of  that  joy  something  that  the 
Christian  Church  and  the  Christians  within  the  church 
are  crying  out  for.  It  is  so  evidently  one  of  the  first- 
fruits  of  fellowship  with  Christ,  and  how  really  rare  a 
gift  it  is  1  St.  Francis  had  it  because,  like  the  birds  he 
loved,  he  leaned  only  upon  God.  Some  men  in  war, 
having  given  themselves  wholly  to  a  cause  that  they 
believed  to  be  of  God,  learned  the  quiet  of  having  the 
world  behind  them.  We  who  are  burdened  about  so 
many  things,  so  anxious  to  assume  the  right  attitude, 
to  maintain  the  conventional  opmion,  to  insure  against 
every  conceivable  misfortune  of  worldly  estate,  how 
can  we  know  the  joy  of  living  free,  the  release  of  cast- 
ing the  burden  upon  the  great  Burden-bearer?  The 
stoic  taught  the  Roman  to  endure  by  denying  the 
presence  of  pain.  His  strength  was  in  his  passive  re- 
ceptivity.   But  Christ  Himself  felt  pain,  dreaded  pain, 


70  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

was  distressed  by  pain  in  the  house  of  His  friends;  and, 
moved  thus  by  the  sombre  and  unkind  things  in  Hfe, 
He  yet  had  an  undisturbed  peace.  If  the  church  is  to 
regain  its  hold  upon  men,  it  must  be  composed  of  joy- 
ous Christians.  Only  then  will  there  be  removed  those 
misapprehensions  which  have  made  for  such  multitudes 
the  thought  of  religion  the  thought  of  gloom.  Only 
thus  shall  we  be  conquerors  through  Christ  who  loved 
us. 

2.  The  Faith  Which  He  Possessed. 

Although  it  is  two  years  since  its  publication,  Mr. 
Lytton  Strachey's  Eminent  Victorians  still  leaves  a 
bad  taste  in  the  mouth.  Mr.  Strachey  made  it  his 
busmess  to  destroy  the  halo  around  some  well-known 
and  long-venerated  heads.  He  spoke  what  he  believed 
to  be  the  truth,  not  always  in  love,  about  Thomas 
Arnold  and  Florence  Nightingale  and  General  Gordon 
and  others.  He  suggested  that  Gordon  had  been  m- 
temperate,  and  that  some  of  his  daring  had  been  due 
to  this  fact.  To  read  the  insinuation  was  to  remem- 
ber the  day,  nearly  forty  years  ago,  when  Gordon,  at 
a  few  hours'  notice,  stepped  out  of  London  and  took 
his  road  for  Khartoum  and  death  and  an  immortal 
name.  The  magic  of  the  story  is  felt  beyond  the 
bounds  of  the  British  Empire.  A  real  hero  is  the  pos- 
session of  all  mankind,  and  the  thought  of  this  one 
solitary  and  God-possessed  soldier  setting  out  alone  by 
sheer  personality  to  quench  the  rebellion  that  had 
spread  over  half  a  continent  will  always  make  the 
blood  of  the  lethargic  and  the  stay-at-home  run  a  little 


Personal  Religion  and  Public  Morah  71 

faster.  But  that  temper,  if  we  could  only  grasp  it,  is 
essentially  the  temper  of  religion,  and  it  means  the 
possession  of  peace.  The  materialism  of  our  day  has 
overshot  all  our  conceptions  of  peace,  and  we  identify 
peace  with  comfort  and  a  substantial  bank  balance 
and  a  fortification  against  the  vicissitudes  of  chance. 
No  wonder  that  the  venture  and  the  happiness  have 
gone  out  of  faith,  which  is  the  trust  in  the  centuries  as 
against  the  years,  in  the  unseen  instead  of  in  the  seen. 
There  is  little  to  be  gained  by  society  congratulating 
itself  in  its  victory  over  alcohol  if  all  the  time  it  judges 
all  success  by  outward  and  obvious  standards.  As 
things  are,  it  is  regarded  almost  as  a  crime  not  to  have 
made  money,  and  the  doom  of  the  "unsuccessful"  is 
not  pity  but  reprobation.  How  is  it  that,  in  a  universe 
in  which  we  believe  that  the  fundamental  factors  are 
spiritual,  such  a  conception  should  have  come  to  rule  I 
Simply  because  we  have  forgotten  the  rock  from  which 
we  have  been  hewn,  and  have  made  a  God  after  our 
own  image.  "He  granted  their  request  but  sent  lean- 
ness into  their  souls"  (Ps.  106  :  15).  We  have  had  our 
reward.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  church  life  is  stag- 
nant? Why  should  it  be  otherwise  if  such  conceptions 
virtually  rule  ?  Faith  is  become  a  comfortable  dogma 
instead  of  a  living  conviction.  The  popular  concep- 
tion of  faith  implies  no  sacrifice.  The  faithful  do  not 
live  in  any  way  which  marks  them  off  from  the  faith- 
less. Generally  speaking,  they  pursue  the  same  inter- 
ests, follow  out  the  same  policy  of  insuring  against 
most  of  the  inevitable  risks  of  life.    Godly  and  un- 


72  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

godly  alike,  they  meet  the  demand  of  charity,  and  are 
not  wholly  mimindful  of  their  duty  to  their  neighbors. 
But  that  the  Christian  Church  should  be  composed  of 
people  who  truly  are  casting  their  burden  upon  the 
Lord  is  an  unknown  conception.  Nor  can  they  ever 
think  of  themselves  launching  off  like  Gordon  on  a 
quest  that  was  inspired  simply  by  belief  in  a  conmiand 
of  God,  as  the  realization  of  a  need,  by  faith  in  an 
ideal. 

If  the  church  of  to-day  is  uninteresting  and  without 
appeal  to  youth,  the  reason  may  very  well  be  found  in 
the  lack  of  any  thought  of  a  living  faith.  Our  Lord 
depended  absolutely  upon  the  Father.  The  Father's 
will  was  his  will,  and  as  the  result  quiet  dwelt  with 
Christ.  But  his  was  no  prudential  service.  Peace  had 
its  willing  price.  "Peace  be  unto  you  .  .  .  and  when 
he  had  thus  spoken  he  showed  them  his  hands  and  his 
side"  (John  20  :  19,  20). 

Public  life  will  rise  no  higher  than  its  source  in  per- 
sonal religion.  A  quick  sense  of  the  brotherhood  of 
man  led  to  the  antislavery  movement.  The  removal 
of  the  merely  penal  idea  in  punishment  has  led  to 
the  new  treatment  of  criminals.  Every  religious 
revival  may  be  traced  by  changes  in  public  ad- 
ministration. A  new  grasp  of  the  meaning  of  faith, 
as  the  leading  by  God  out  into  the  wilderness,  will 
draw  out  of  their  pessimism  and  social  ineptitude  men 
and  women  who  loathe  the  publicity  and  mud-slinging 
of  public  life  and  have  hitherto  stood  apart  from  it. 
If,  however,  they  come  to  it  out  of  an  awakened  con- 


Personal  Religion  and  Public  Morals  73 

science,  they  will  step  forth,  not  as  unwilling  recruits, 
obeying  the  uninspiring  call  of  mere  duty,  but  as  cru- 
saders to  strive  for  the  kmgdom  of  God  upon  earth. 

The  great  aim  of  this  and  of  every  day  is  definite 
and  in  itself  simple — to  make  spiritual  things  real. 
Each  man  has  to  understand  his  dependence  upon  a 
world  which  he  cannot  control,  which  was  before  he 
was  and  will  endure  when  he  has  gone,  a  world  in  which 
right  rules  inevitably  and  finally,  where  the  secrets  of 
all  hearts  are  known.  And  then,  having  recognized 
with  all  its  implications  his  place  in  this  kingdom  of 
the  spirit,  he  has  to  play  his  part  through  the  institu- 
tions of  civilized  life,  the  church,  the  state,  the  munici- 
pality, in  making  this  unseen  life  an  actuality  in  the 
region  of  things  mundane.  But  first  things  come 
first.  The  social  interest  does  not  create  the  clean 
heart.  The  power  of  Christ  alone  can  do  that.  The 
Salvation  Army  is  a  mighty  factor  in  moral  uplift  but 
it  had  its  origin  in  Methodism  and  in  the  Christian 
experiences  of  a  godly  man  and  of  a  still  more  God- 
inspired  woman.  Those  churches  are  not  wrong  or 
out  of  date  which  lay  stress  on  the  relationship  of  the 
believer  to  his  Lord.  That,  after  all,  is  the  funda- 
mental thing,  the  source  out  of  which  all  wider  and 
more  impersonal  movements  flow.  Evangelical  faith 
is  not  outgrown.  It  never  can  be  outgrown.  It 
needs,  it  is  true,  constant  restatement.  The  living 
phrases  of  one  generation  become  almost  certainly 
the  catchwords  of  the  next.    It  is  not  only  the  right 


74  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

but  the  duty  of  each  generation  of  exercised  Christians 
to  state  its  beHef  in  its  own  way;  and  those  who  are 
older  must  have  faith  in  those  who  are  young  and  allow 
them  to  tell  their  story  in  their  own  words.  It  was  a 
great  friendship  which  existed  between  D.  L.  Moody 
and  Henry  Drummond.  The  older  man  was  self- 
educated,  brought  up  to  a  religious  belief  that  was 
under  attack  by  scholars  and  scientists.  The  younger 
man  was  both  a  scholar  and  a  scientist,  a  setter  forth 
of  new  views  of  things.  But  it  was  Drummond  who 
was  chosen  by  Moody  to  follow  up  his  work,  to  gather 
together  the  results  of  the  missions.  For  Moody, 
"the  greatest  of  living  humans,"  as  Drummond  called 
him,  saw  that  they  were  both  striving  for  the  same 
thing,  actually  saying  it  in  different  words.  They 
both  have  had  their  reward  in  the  affection  of  count- 
less men  and  women  who  think  of  them  as  messengers 
of  the  new  life.  But  an  awakened  soul  is  the  begin- 
ning of  things.  He  who  has  been  truly  aroused  to  the 
life  of  God  will  not  be  slack  in  the  life  of  man. 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIAL  DISCONTENT 

BY 
PAUL  ELMER  MORE,  LITT.D.,  LL.D. 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIAL  DISCONTENT 

A  COUPLE  of  years  ago  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
of  our  social  philosophers,  Professor  John  Dewey,  of 
Columbia  University,  was  invited  to  lecture  at  the 
Imperial  University  of  Japan,  and,  having  delivered 
his  message  in  Tokyo,  proceeded  to  China,  where  he 
was  welcomed  eagerly  by  the  younger  malcontents  as 
an  exponent  of  Western  ideas.  The  character  of  these 
ideas  which  our  collegiate  missioner  carried  across  the 
Pacific  Ocean  may  be  learned  from  the  little  book  since 
published  by  him  under  the  title  of  Reconstruction  in 
Philosophy.  His  thesis,  indeed,  is  simple  almost  to 
naivet^.  Hitherto,  he  avers,  philosophy  and  religion 
have  been  nothing  but  an  attempt  to  "identify  truth 
with  authoritative  dogma."  And  this  attempt  has  a 
double  aspect,  theoretical  and  practical.  On  the  one 
hand,  mankind  is  prone  to  forget  the  evils  of  yester- 
day and  to  gloat  in  memory  over  the  good,  so  that  by 
the  combined  force  of  memory  and  imagination  the 
past  remains  with  us  as  a  kind  of  idealized  dream,  a 
lovely,  impalpable  curtain  hanging  between  our  vision 
and  the  hard  realities  of  the  present.  From  such  an 
iridescent  dream  has  grown  the  philosophical  and  reli- 
gious belief  in  an  immaterial  world  of  ideas,  a  glamor- 
ous make-believe  under  whose  sway  "we  squirm,"  as 
Mr.  Dewey  says  in  his  pragmatic  style,  "  dodge,  evade, 
disguise,  cover  up,  find  excuses  and  palliations — any- 

77 


78  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

thing  to  render  the  mental  scene  less  uncongenial," 
and  so  to  escape  the  actualities  that  confront  us. 
Buddha,  Plato,  Jesus,  and  the  other  great  masters  and 
doctors  of  the  life  unseen  were  merely  juggling  with 
words  and  leading  us  nowhere;  the  discipline  of  char- 
acter proposed  by  them  and  their  offers  of  supernatural 
peace  were  a  fraudulent  perversion  of  the  facts  of  hu- 
man experience.  The  only  true  knowledge  is  that 
which  comes  to  the  farmer  toiling  at  his  crops,  and  to 
the  carpenter  laboring  with  his  tools;  the  real  facts  of 
life  are  those  that  we  can  see  and  smell  and  taste  and 
handle,  and,  so  far  as  I  can  understand  jMr.  Dewey, 
such  things  alone. 

That  is  the  theoretical  aspect  of  the  reconstruction 
of  philosophy  proposed  by  our  tender-hearted  ma- 
terialist; and  the  practical  aspect  is  like  unto  it.  Ex- 
isting forms  of  government,  established  order,  prop- 
erty, the  church,  institutions  generally,  draw  their 
support  from  the  idealizing  illusions  of  memory  and 
imagination;  they  are  in  truth  the  dead  hand  of 
the  past  clutching  the  throat  of  the  living  present. 
Throughout  all  the  ages  preceding  the  advent  of  Mr. 
Dewey,  or  by  a  gracious  inclusion  anterior  to  Francis 
Bacon,  it  has  been  the  task  of  philosophers  and  religious 
leaders  to  find  reasons  for  the  existence  of  such  institu- 
tions on  ideal  grounds,  and  to  justify  those  who  profit 
from  them  at  the  expense  of  the  masses.  Religion  and 
philosophy  have  been  simply  the  servile  allies  of  the 
predatory  classes  of  society.  The  hope  of  the  world 
is  in  the  new  gospel  of  pragmatic  materialism. 


Religion  and  Social  Discontent  79 

I  trust  I  have  not  misrepresented  Mr.  Dewey's 
teaching.  Indeed,  with  an  individual  teacher  I  should 
have  no  quarrel,  were  he  not  in  a  position  of  authority; 
but  it  is  another  matter  when  such  doctrines  are  spread- 
ing out  from  a  lecture-room  all  over  the  country,  and, 
as  I  hear  from  Chinese  friends,  are  persuading  the 
young  reformers  of  the  Far  East  that  the  only  salva- 
tion for  their  people  lies  in  adopting  the  crudest  ma- 
terialism of  Western  civilization,  and  in  emancipating 
themselves  from  all  that  philosophy  and  religion  hith- 
erto have  meant  to  the  Occident  as  well  as  to  the 
Orient.     At  least  here  is  a  matter  to  consider. 

Now  in  one  sense  Mr.  Dewey's  theory  of  religion — I 
use  this  word  preferably,  since  the  classical  forms  of 
philosophy  which  he  would  reconstruct  belonged  essen- 
tially to  the  field  of  religion — in  one  sense  this  theory 
is  so  far  from  being  revolutionary  that  it  has  been  cur- 
rent almost  from  the  inception  of  human  thought, 
Plato  knew  that  the  religious  temper  was  naturally 
reverential  of  the  past  and  conservative  in  its  influ- 
ence. It  was,  indeed,  for  this  reason  that  he  gave  to 
religion  and  to  a  philosophy  of  the  unseen  world  so 
thorough  a  control  over  the  polity  of  his  state.  Polyb- 
ius,  the  Greek  historian  of  Rome,  not  only  recognized 
this  function  of  religion,  but  went  so  far  as  to  maintain 
that  even  the  palpable  fictions  of  superstition  should 
be  upheld  as  a  safeguard  against  political  anaichy. 
"Since  the  multitude,"  he  argues,  "is  ever  fickle  and 
capricious,  full  of  lawless  passions,  and  irrational  and 
violent  resentments,  there  is  no  way  left  to  keep  them 


80  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

in  order  but  the  terrors  of  future  punishment,  and  all 
the  pompous  circumstance  that  attends  such  kinds  of 
fictions.  On  which  account  the  ancients  acted,  in  my 
opinion,  with  great  judgment  and  penetration,  when 
they  contrived  to  bring  in  these  notions  of  the  gods 
and  of  a  future  state  into  the  popular  belief."  And 
on  this  basis  Polybius  goes  on  to  show  how  the  power 
and  permanence  of  Rome  were  connected  with  a 
national  morality  grounded  in  irrational  beliefs,  where- 
as the  inquisitive  rationaUsm  of  Greece  was  the  cause 
of  her  ethical  and  political  decline.  Livy's  annals 
of  Rome  are  inspired  throughout  by  the  same  idea, 
though  without  the  tincture  of  scepticism  that  per- 
vades the  philosophy  of  the  Greek  historian.  The 
city  on  the  Tiber,  Livy  thought,  grew  mighty  and 
conquered  the  world  because  of  her  faith  in  the  gods 
and  in  that  mystical  Fatum  which  presided  over  her 
destiny,  and  kept  her,  through  all  the  formal  changes 
of  her  government,  true  to  her  original  ethos.  "You 
will  find,"  he  writes,  "all  things  have  prospered  for 
those  who  follow  the  gods,  while  adversity  dogs  those 
who  spurn  them — invenietis  omnia  prospera  evenisse 
sequentibus  deos,  adversa  spernentibus."  So,  for  Tacitus, 
religion  was,  as  he  expresses  it  in  his  epigrammatic 
way,  instrumentum  regni.  Christianity,  though  it  al- 
tered much,  maintained  this  same  view.  The  greatest 
preacher  of  the  ancient  church,  Chrysostom,  was  fond 
of  pointing  to  the  connection  of  religious  humility, 
mother  of  all  the  virtues,  with  the  principle  of  orderly 
subordination,  on  which,  as  on  the  golden  chain  of 


Religion  and  Social  Discontent  81 

divine  law,  depended  the  stability  of  society  and  the 
happiness  of  the  people. 

But  I  must  not  fatigue  you  with  examples.  Passing 
on  to  the  eighteenth  century,  one  finds  the  politico- 
religious  thought  of  England  and  France  dominated 
by  the  Polybian  notion  that  religion  was  imposed  more 
or  less  deliberately  on  the  people  by  their  masters  as 
an  instrument  of  government,  only  with  this  important 
difference,  that  in  England  the  imposition  was  com- 
monly regarded  even  by  the  more  radical  deists  and 
freethinkers  as  a  salutary  and  necessary  fraud,  whereas 
across  the  channel  a  more  logical  and  less  prudential 
habit  of  speech  led  the  bolder  spirits  at  least  to  spurn 
the  whole  fabric  of  traditional  religion  as  an  impedi- 
ment to  liberty  and  progress.  It  was  characteristic  of 
the  British  mind,  then  as  it  has  always  been,  to  stop 
short  of  final  conclusions  and  to  be  tolerant  of  a  certain 
penumbra  of  illusion  about  the  ultimate  principles  of 
life,  a  trait  which  has  resulted  on  the  one  hand  in  the 
national  willingness  "to  muddle  through,"  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  m  a  deeper  sense  of  spiritual  mysteries. 
Bolmgbroke,  atheist  or  deist,  as  you  choose  to  call 
him,  would  take  the  position  frankly  that  the  truths 
of  scepticism  are  for  the  enlightened  few  who,  as  Aris- 
totle said,  have  learned  from  philosophy  to  do  volun- 
tarily what  other  men  do  under  compulsion.  Religion, 
to  Bolingbroke  and  his  class,  was  simply  an  integral 
part  of  that  marvellous  fiction,  the  British  Constitu- 
tion. "To  make  a  government  effectual  to  all  the 
good  purposes  of  it,"  he  says,  "there  must  be  a  religion; 


82  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

this  religion  must  be  national,  and  this  national  re- 
ligion must  be  maintained  in  reputation  and  rever- 
ence." And  a  little  later  in  the  century  one  of  the 
correspondents  of  that  admirable  and  very  British 
gentleman,  Sir  William  Pepys,  condemns  Gibbon  for 
divulging  to  the  public  the  sort  of  scepticism  which 
he  might  have  enjoyed  lawfully  in  his  closet.  "I 
agree,"  avows  our  correspondent,  "that  no  man  should 
'take  the  bridle  out  of  the  mouth  of  that  wild  Beast 
Man'  (as  Bolingbroke  writes  to  Swift).  .  .  .  Tho'  a 
man  may  be  allowed  to  keep  poisons  in  his  closet,  he 
shall  not  be  permitted  to  vend  them  as  cordials." 
(Which,  so  far  as  I  know,  is  the  first  attempt  recorded 
in  history  to  evade,  prophetically,  the  Eighteenth 
Amendment  of  our  own  Constitution.)  Nothing  is 
more  characteristic  of  the  ruling  temper  of  England 
than  the  fact  that  this  same  Gibbon,  he  who  had  ex- 
pended his  wit  and  his  vast  erudition  in  "sapping  a 
solemn  creed  with  solemn  sneer,"  in  his  old  age  should 
have  confessed  admiration  for  Burke's  chivalry,  even 
for  his  "superstition,"  and  should  have  planned  a  dia- 
logue of  the  dead,  wherein  Lucian  and  Erasmus  and 
Voltaire  were  to  be  heard  discussing  the  danger  of 
shakmg  the  ancient  faith  of  the  people  in  religious 
institutions. 

But  the  French  mind  could  not  rest  in  this  severance 
of  logic  and  practice.  To  their  more  incisive  and  less 
humble  way  of  thinking,  true  was  true  and  false  was 
false,  and  to  confound  the  boundaries  of  truth  and 
falsehood  was  only  to  pay  homage  to  canting  hypoc- 


Religion  and  Social  Discontent  83 

risy.  There  was  no  distinction  for  them  between  an 
illusion  and  a  plain  lie,  nor  would  they  rest  satisfied 
with  a  suppression  of  truth  as  known  to  individual 
reason,  in  order  to  leave  room  for  a  practical  faith  as 
taught  by  public  experience.  So  it  happened  that  the 
philosophes  as  a  body  were  not  theoretical  sceptics 
merely  but  militant  atheists.  If,  as  La  Mettrie  be- 
lieved, "the  soul  is  an  empty  word  of  which  no  one 
has  any  idea,"  if  men  are  no  more  than  blind  "moles 
creeping  in  the  field  of  nature,"  then,  o'  God's  name, 
out  with  the  truth  of  it;  society  can  only  profit  from 
universal  knowledge  of  the  facts.  In  like  manner  a 
Holbach  will  take  up  the  old  theory  of  Polybius,  but 
without  the  Polybian  and  the  British  "reserve."  "Ex- 
perience," he  says,  "teaches  us  that  sacred  opinions 
were  the  real  source  of  the  evils  of  human  beings. 
Ignorance  of  natural  causes  created  gods  for  them. 
Imposture  made  these  gods  terrible.  This  idea  hin- 
dered the  progress  of  reason."  And  again:  "An  athe- 
ist ...  is  a  man  who  destroys  chimeras  harmful  to 
the  human  race,  in  order  to  lead  men  back  to  nature, 
to  experience,  and  to  reason,  which  has  no  need  of 
recourse  to  ideal  powers  to  explain  the  operations  of 
nature." 

And  the  French  view  has  prevailed,  or  threatens  to 
prevail,  as  courageous  views  inevitably  tend  to  sup- 
plant timid  views,  however  true  it  may  be  that  cour- 
age in  such  matters  may  sometimes  be  another  name 
for  insensibility,  not  to  say  conceit.  So  Leslie  Stephen, 
writing  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  England,  with  a 


84  Christianity  and  Problerns  of  T(Hiay 

sneer  that  contrives  to  combine  the  French  boldness 
with  the  British  reserve,  declares  that  "the  church,  in 
short,  was  excellent  as  a  national  refrigerating  machine; 
but  no  cultivated  person  could  believe  in  its  doctrines." 
And  at  last  Mr.  Dewey,  perhaps  the  most  influential 
teacher  to-day  in  America,  is  renewing  the  old  cry  and 
persuading  our  young  men  that  religion  is  a  fallacy  of 
the  reason  devised  to  maintain  the  more  fortunate 
classes  in  their  iniquitous  claims,  and  that  progress 
and  democracy  are  bound  up  with  the  materialistic 
pragmatism  that  emanates  from  his  own  chair  of  re- 
constructed philosophy. 

Now,  it  will  be  clear  from  these  illustrations,  which 
might  be  multiplied  indefinitely,  that  the  classic  phi- 
losophy, the  philosophy  of  idealism  properly  so  called, 
which  underlies  all  religion,  whether  Platonic  or  Chris- 
tian, has  been  regarded  by  most  thinking  men  from 
ancient  times  to  the  present  day  as  a  conservative,  or 
at  least  as  a  regulative,  forcenin  society.  But  thinking 
men  have  differed  profoundly  in  their  valuation  of  such 
a  force.  Those  who  hold  this  philosophy  to  be  true 
are  naturally  undivided  in  their  opinion  that  its  social 
function  is  beneficial;  but  those  sceptically  and  mate- 
rialistically inclined,  to  whom  the  spiritual  world  of 
Plato  and  St.  Augustine  is  merely  an  insubstantial  fab- 
ric wrought  out  of  the  discontent  of  mankind  with  the 
actualities  of  life,  have  been  divided  in  their  attitude. 
By  some  this  dream  of  the  unseen,  though  a  deception, 
has  been  accepted  as  necessary  for  the  ordered  welfare 
of  society;  the  enlightened  few  might  indulge  their 


Religion  and  Social  Discontent  85 

superiority  of  doubt,  but  without  the  restraining  con- 
tent born  of  superstition  the  turbulent  desires  of  the 
masses  would  throw  the  world  into  anarchy  and  bar- 
barism and  universal  misery.  That  was  the  prevalent 
attitude  of  ancient  rationalism;  and  it  is  still  common 
enough  to-day  among  those  who  have  a  condescending 
respect  for  the  church  as  a  useful  ally  of  the  poHce 
court.  To  others,  a  rapidly  growmg  number,  it  seems 
that  the  spirit  of  content  engendered  by  religion,  if 
based  on  a  falsehood,  must  be  detrimental  to  the  prog- 
ress of  mankmd.  Or  perhaps  their  position  might  be 
expressed  more  accurately  by  reversing  the  terms. 
They  would  not  say  that  religious  content  is  false  and 
therefore  must  be  detrimental;  but,  rather,  religious 
content  is  inimical  to  progress  and  therefore  must  be 
false. 

I  am  not  here  before  you  to-day  to  determine  the 
truth  or  falsehood  of  the  ideal  philosophy  which  sup- 
ports religious  institutions;  that  is  a  question  which 
for  the  present  we  may  waive.  We  will  not  discrimi- 
nate between  those  who  hold  this  philosophy  to  be 
true  and  those  who  regard  it  as  an  illusion,  but  an  illu-. 
sion  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  society.  The, 
line  for  us  is  drawn  between  those  who,  for  whatever] 
reason,  cling  to  a  religious  philosophy  of  the  unseen 
and  those  who  denounce  such  a  philosophy  as  a  check 
to  the  progress  and  prosperity  of  the  race.  And  you 
will  see  at  once  that  the  issue  between  these  two  classes 
has  been  sharpened  for  us  of  the  present  day  by  the^ 
intrusion  into  sociology  of  a  new  theory  of  existence — 


86  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

new  at  least  m  its  scope  and  claims.     I  mean  the  great 
and  all-devouring  doctrine  of  evolution. 

Now  the  evolutionary  philosophy,  by  which  we  have 
become  accustomed,  rather  prematurely  perhaps,  to 
test  all  problems  of  truth  and  utility,  has  many  aspects 
and  follows  various  lines  of  argument.  What  it  means 
to  the  working  scientist  is  one  thing,  and  what  it  means 
to  the  metaphysician  may  be  quite  another  thing;  but 
when  it  intrudes  mto  the  field  of  sociology,  and  more 
specifically  when  it  lays  its  grasping  hand  upon  that 
part  of  sociology  which  attempts  to  weigh  the  value  of 
religious  belief,  you  will  find  it  almost  inevitably  tak- 
ing the  note  so  clearly  defined  in  pages  of  Mr.  Dewey's 
typical  book.  Evolution  is  ident^edLjS^ith  progress, 
progress  is  measured  by  increased  power  to  satisfy 
physical  wants,  and  the  effort  to  increase  this  power  is 
conditioned  on  dissatisfaction  with  material  conditions. 
Oh,  I  know  that  many  evolutionary  sociologists  will 
demur  against  the  reduction  of  their  theories  to  a 
crudely  materialistic  formula;  but  many  of  them  will 
not,  and  I  am  sure  the  formula  does  not  misrepresent 
/  the  real  conclusions  of  their  doctrine.  It  comes  down 
j  to  this:  Physical  progress  has  its  source  in  physical  dis- 
1  content,  and,  by  an  extension  of  terms,  social  progress 
I  has  its  source  in  social  discontent;  and  any  doctrine 
which  dulls  the  edge  of  this  discontent  is  thereby  an 
obstacle  in  the  path  of  individual  and  racial  welfare. 
Discontent  is  motion  and  the  striving  for  better  things, 
it  is  life;  content  is  just  stagnation  and  death.  And 
here  lies  the  charge  against  religion.     By  drawing  off 


Religion  and  Social  Discontent  87 

the  mind  to  the  contemplation  of  those  so-called  eter- 
nal things  that  are  not  visible  to  the  bodily  eyes  or 
palpable  to  these  fleshly  hands,  by  injecting  spiritual 
values  into  this  present  life  and  raising  hopes  of  other- 
worldly happiness,  religion,  together  with  the  whole 
range  of  illusory  philosophy  on  which  it  is  nurtured, 
throws  the  feelings  of  physical  discomfort  out  of  the 
centre  into  the  further  margin  of  the  field  of  vision,  into 
the  penumbra,  so  to  speak,  of  insignificance,  while  it 
imposes  a  stillness  of  content  upon  the  naturally  rest- 
less soul  of  man.  In  such  a  mood  the  past,  out  of 
which  the  oracles  of  faith  seem  to  sound  by  some 
miracle  of  memory,  acquires  a  tender  sanctity,  and  the 
institutions  of  tradition  are  often  invested  with  a  rev- 
erence and  awe  which  easily  flow  into  vested  rights. 
If  the  religious  mood  were  really  to  prevail,  they  say, 
then  society  would  sink  into  the  slothful  decay  de- 
scribed by  old  Mandeville  in  his  "  Fable  of  the  Bees," 
that  terrible  poem  which  the  modern  humanitarian 
would  abhor  as  a  black  parody  of  his  doctrine,  but 
which  in  good  sooth  told  the  facts  of  a  materialistic 
sociology  once  for  all : 

All  Arts  and  Crafts  neglected  He; 
Content,  the  Bane  of  Industry, 
Makes  'em  admire  their  homely  Store, 
And  neither  seek  nor  covet  more. 

What  shall  be  said  of  these  contrasted  views?  I 
think  first  of  all  we  must  say  that  the  issue  is  confused 
by  an  ambiguity  lurking  in  the  terms  employed.     And 


88  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

this  is  no  new  thing.  It  is,  in  fact,  one  of  the  curiosi- 
ties of  our  human  warfare  that  the  most  bitter  dis- 
putes on  the  most  fundamental  questions  often  go 
round  about  in  a  circle  because  the  two  parties  to  the 
dispute  do  not  see  that  the  same  word  may  be  used  in 
different  senses.  So  it  is  certainly  of  content  and  dis- 
content; and  a  man's  attitude  may  very  well  be  deter- 
mined by  his  understanding  or  misunderstanding  of 
the  double  meaning  of  these  words.  Cardinal  New- 
man, perhaps  the  keenest  psychological  analyst  of  the 
past  century,  has  insisted  on  this  distinction  in  one 
of  his  sermons: 

To  be  out  of  conceit  with  our  lot  in  life  is  no  high  feeling — it 
is  discontent  or  ambition;  but  to  be  out  of  conceit  with  the  ordi- 
nary way  of  viewing  our  lot,  with  the  ordinary  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings of  mankind  is  nothing  but  to  be  a  Christian.  This  is  the 
difference  between  worldly  ambition  and  heavenly.  It  is  a 
heavenly  ambition  which  prompts  us  to  soar  above  the  vulgar 
and  ordinary  motives  and  tastes  of  the  world,  the  while  we  abide 
in  our  calling;  like  our  Saviour  who,  though  the  Son  of  God  and 
partaking  of  His  Father's  fulness,  yet  all  His  youth  long  was 
obedient  to  His  earthly  parents,  and  learned  a  hiunble  trade.  But 
it  is  a  sordid,  narrow,  miserable  ambition  to  attempt  to  leave 
our  earthly  lot;  to  be  wearied  or  ashamed  of  what  we  are,  to 
hanker  after  greatness  of  station,  or  novelty  of  life.  However, 
the  multitude  of  men  go  neither  in  the  one  way  nor  the  other; 
they  neither  have  the  high  ambition  nor  the  low  ambition. 

If  that  sounds  oversubtle,  or  if  the  preacher's  as- 
sumptions seem  to  beg  the  question,  let  us  drop  the 
pulpit  jargon  and  look  at  the  distinction  as  it  works 
out  practically  in  the  lives  of  two  highly  useful  mem- 


Religion  aiid  Social  Discontent  89 

bers  of  society,  the  plumber  and  the  college  president. 
Suppose  a  plumber  is  called  into  your  house  on  a  raw 
day  of  January  to  tinker  up  a  disordered  pipe  in  the 
cellar.  Probably  that  plumber  is  discontented;  indeed, 
I  cannot  imagine  how  a  plumber  can  be  anything  but 
discontented.  Nevertheless,  his  discontent  may  be 
either  one  of  two  very  different  sorts.  He  may  be 
grumbling  to  himself  because  he  has  to  work  at  a  cold 
and  dirty  job,  while  you  are  enjoying  your  newspaper 
up-stairs  over  a  warm  and  cosey  fire.  In  that  case  his 
discontent  may  take  itself  out  in  slighting  his  task  and 
wasting  your  time  and  lengthening  his  bill.  These 
things  are  said  to  happen.  And  he  may  even  carry  his 
discontent  into  a  view  of  the  organization  of  society 
which  expresses  itself  in  very  hardy  politics.  But  sup- 
pose now  that  his  discontent  takes  another  form. 
Imagine  him  content  with  his  lot  as  a  plumber,  even 
proud  of  it,  but  dissatisfied  with  the  common  reproach 
of  slackness  and  extortion,  ambitious  to  excel  in  his 
profession.  I  do  not  cite  such  a  plumber  as  a  prob- 
ability; but  all  things  are  possible  in  a  Bross  lecture. 
At  any  rate,  such  a  paragon  would  be  worthy  of  suc- 
ceeding to  that  famous  chair  of  the  Harvard  faculty 
once  occupied  by  a  gentleman  whom  the  trustees  hired 
as  the  Plummer  professor  of  Christianity,  but  whom 
the  undergraduates  irreverently  dubbed  the  Cliristian 
professor  of  plumbing. 

And  so  the  other  end  of  the  scale,  the  college  presi- 
dent. He  too  is  said  sometimes  to  be  discontented; 
and  again  his  discontent  may  assume  either  one  of  two 


90  Christianity  arid  Problems  of  To-day 

forms.  He  may  be  ambitious  of  size  and  reclame  for 
his  institution,  and  may  measure  his  dignity  by  the 
number  of  students  over  whom  he  presides.  His 
alumni  are  Hkely  to  encourage  him  in  this,  and  I  have 
myself  known  the  head  of  an  ancient  university  in  the 
East  who  used  to  scan  the  catalogues  of  the  great 
Western  institutions  year  by  year  with  bitter  jealousy 
and  heart-burning  as  their  register  of  students  gradu- 
ally approached  his  own,  and  then  shot  beyond  it. 
Inevitably  such  discontent  leads  to  a  lowering  of  stand- 
ards, mitigated  by  the  pious  belief  that  that  form  of 
education  is  noblest  which  is  desired  by,  and  accessible 
to,  the  largest  number  of  paying  candidates.  Thus  a 
debasement  of  education  becomes  identified  in  his 
mind  with  social  service.  But  one  can  imagine  an- 
other kind  of  discontent,  which  should  pursue  just  the 
opposite  course.  Its  standard  would  be  qualitative, 
not  quantitative,  and  it  would  fear  the  temptation  of 
size,  not  the  murmurs  of  ambitious  alumni.  It  would 
look  for  its  reward  not  in  a  swelling  registration  or 
spreading  houses  or  additional  courses  of  study,  but  to 
its  success  in  attracting  the  better  minds  and  the 
stronger  characters  and  in  directing  these  in  the  nar- 
row and  tried  paths.  It  might  even  go  so  far — though 
this  is  confessedly  a  fairy-tale — as  to  lay  a  rough,  re- 
straining hand  on  that  most  corrupting  nurse  of  ma- 
terialism in  our  schools,  professional  athletics. 

However  it  may  be  with  the  plumber  and  the  college 
president,  clearly  these  words,  content  and  discontent, 
are  replete  with  ambiguity;  they  are  consequences 


Religion  and  Social  Discontent  91 

rather  than  motives  of  conduct,  and  we  cannot  safely 
argue  upon  them  until  we  have  looked  more  closely 
into  the  springs  of  action  which  control  respectively 
the  religious  and  the  natural  life.  And  here  I  must 
beg  you  to  indulge  me  in  a  bit  of  pedantry.  Our  Eng- 
lish speech,  with  all  its  practical  efficiency,  has  never 
developed  a  very  precise  ethical  terminology,  and  so 
to  get  at  the  distinction  I  have  in  mind  I  am  going  to 
ask  you  to  consider  two  rather  outlandish-sounding 
Greek  words  which  were  much  in  use  among  the  early 
moralists  of  our  era.  One  of  them  is  tapeinophrosyne, 
the  other  is  pleonexia. 

Tapeinophrosyne  is  a  compound  word,  meaning  pri- 
marily lowness  of  mind;  it  embraces  the  idea  of  humility 
and  meekness,  but  neither  of  these  conveys  its  full  sig- 
nificance. St.  Paul  uses  it  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephe- 
sians,  where  it  is  translated  specifically  "lowliness," 
but  its  force  really  runs  through  the  whole  passage: 
"  I  therefore,  the  prisoner  of  the  Lord,  beseech  you  that 
ye  walk  worthy  of  the  vocation  wherewith  ye  are 
called,  with  all  lowliness  (tapeinophrosyne)  and  meek- 
ness, with  long-suffering,  forbearing  one  another  in 
love;  endeavoring  to  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
bond  of  peace."  Paul  had  in  mind  the  saying  of 
Christ  recorded  in  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  where  an 
equivalent  phrase  is  rendered  "lowly  in  heart":  "Come 
unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I 
will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon  you,  and 
learn  of  me;  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart:  and  ye 
shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls."    And  the  first  of  the 


92  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

Beatitudes  contains  the  same  idea  in  slightly  different 
language:  "Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit  (i.  e.,  the 
lowly  in  heart),  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
This,  then,  is  the  virtue,  or,  rather,  as  Chrysostom 
calls  it,  the  mother  of  the  virtues,  which  was  upheld  by 
the  fathers,  without  exception  one  might  almost  say,  as 
the  basis  of  Christian  character  and  the  motive  of  reli- 
gious living — tapeinophrosyne.  And  the  result  of  such 
a  virtue,  as  it  works  itself  out  through  character  into 
content  and  discontent,  is  readily  seen.  It  lays  the 
axe  at  the  very  root  of  that  restlessness,  that  uneasy 
ambition,  that  natural  instinct  of  jealousy,  that  cov- 
etousness  forbidden  in  the  Tenth  Commandment.  It 
goes  even  further  than  that.  You  may  have  observed 
that  the  blessing  bestowed  in  Matthew  on  the  "poor 
in  spirit,"  in  Luke  is  directed  simply  to  the  "poor,"  or 
"beggars,"  as  the  word  might  be  translated.  Now 
Luke,  it  is  fair  to  say,  introduced  a  disturbing  element 
into  religion  by  his  habit  of  giving  this  materialistic 
turn  to  spiritual  graces.  But  it  remains  true,  never- 
theless, that  this  glorification — the  word  is  scarcely  too 
strong — of  poverty,  or  at  least  of  the  freedom  from 
material  possessions,  as  in  itself  a  state  of  blessedness, 
is  a  note  not  only  of  all  the  Gospels  but  of  most  of  the 
other  great  religious  books  that  have  moved  the  world. 
Always  Chrysostom,  to  refer  again  to  the  model  Chris- 
tian preacher,  connects  humility  with  the  twin  virtue 
of  charity.  And  charity,  as  he  commends  it,  is  not  so 
much  an  act  of  giving  out  of  sympathy  for  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  needy  and  downtrodden — though  this  feel- 


Religion  and  Social  Dlscont&nt  93 

ing  is  not  absent — as  it  is  a  voluntary  act  of  surrender- 
ing our  worldly  possessions  in  the  belief  that  in  them- 
selves they  may  be  a  snare  to  the  spirit.  For  Chrysos- 
tom,  in  a  very  literal  sense  of  tlie  word,  it  was  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.  If  religion  suffered 
discontent  to  abide  in  the  heart  of  a  man,  it  would  not 
be  because  he  owned  too  few  of  this  world's  goods,  or 
felt  humiliated  by  his  relative  rank  in  society,  but  be- 
cause the  world  was  too  much  with  him.  For  true 
content  he  should  look  to  treasures  laid  up  elsewhere 
and  to  riches  that  the  eye  of  the  flesh  could  not  count. 
So  much  for  the  religious  motive  of  humility.  Pleo- 
nexia,  the  driving  force  of  the  natural  man,  might  be 
defined  as  its  exact  opposite.  Etymologically,  as  an 
ethical  term,  pleonexia  means  simply  the  reaching  out 
to  grasp  ever  more  and  more,  whether  this  impulse 
show  itself  in  the  grosser  appetite  for  possessions,  or  in 
the  ambition  to  overtop  others  in  rank  and  honors,  or 
in  that  universal  craving  which  Hobbes  regarded  as 
the  state  of  nature:  "A  general  inclination  of  all  man- 
kind, a  perpetual  and  restless  desire  of  power  after 
power,  that  ceaseth  only  in  death."  To  call  this  the 
natural  state  of  man  might  seem  to  involve  a  libel 
against  both  nature  and  man,  but  by  natural,  as  you 
see,  is  meant  only  the  condition  of  mankind  if  all  those 
restraints  were  excluded  which  we  have  defined  as  reli- 
gious. And  such  a  liberty  has  never  lacked  its  advo- 
cates as  being  not  only  the  natural  but  the  rational, 
even  the  ideal  rule  of  conduct.  It  would  be  easy  to 
prove  this  by  abundant  citations  from  modern  writers; 


94  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

indeed,  the  name  of  Nietzsche  leaps  to  one's  lips;  but 
as  I  have  already  trespassed  on  your  patience  by  the 
introduction  of  Greek  terms  into  my  definitions,  I  will 
presume  further  by  going  for  my  illustrations  to  the 
people  who  coined  the  expression.  In  one  of  the  dia- 
logues of  Plato,  then,  you  may  hear  a  respectable  citi- 
zen of  Athens  rebuking  Socrates  for  his  fantastic  no- 
tions of  conduct,  and  arguing  for  what  was  really  the 
popular  code  of  morality: 

The  makers  of  laws  are  the  many  weak;  and  they  make  laws 
and  distribute  praises  and  censures  with  a  \4ew  to  themselves 
and  to  their  own  interests;  and  they  terrifj^  the  mightier  sort  of 
men,  and  those  who  are  able  to  get  the  better  of  them,  in  order 
that  thev  may  not  get  the  better  of  them;  and  they  say  that 
dishonesty  is  shameful  and  imjust;  meaning,  when  they  speak 
of  injustice,  the  desire  to  have  more  (pleon  echein)  than  their 
neighbors,  for  knowing  their  own  inferiority  they  are  only  too 
glad  of  equality.  ...  I  plainly  assert  that  he  who  would  truly 
live  ought  to  allow  his  desires  to  wax  to  the  uttermost,  and  not 
to  chastise  them;  but  when  they  have  grown  to  their  greatest  he 
should  have  courage  and  intelligence  to  minister  to  them  and 
to  satisfy  all  his  longings.  And  this  I  affirm  to  be  natural  justice 
and  nobility.  But  the  many  cannot  do  so;  and,  therefore,  they 
blame  such  persons,  because  they  are  ashamed  of  their  own 
inability,  which  they  desire  to  conceal,  and  hence  they  say  that 
intemperance  is  base. 

This  is  manifestly  the  Hobbian  \-iew  of  the  natural 
state  of  man,  thought  out  long  before  Hobbes,  not  to 
mention  the  naturalists  of  our  own  day.  And  it  was 
not  theory  only,  but  practice.  Turn  to  Thucydides's 
History  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  which  Hobbes  trans- 


Religion  and  Social  Discontent  95 

lated,  and  from  which,  though  this  is  not  generally 
known,  Hobbes  borrowed  the  principles  that  stirred  up 
the  seventeenth  century  as  Nietzsche  troubled  the 
nineteenth.  Read  there  the  famous  debate  between 
the  envoys  of  Athens  and  the  magistrates  of  Melos. 
The  Athenians  are  advismg  the  Melians,  whose  racial 
aflmity  was  with  Sparta,  to  submit  their  city  to  the 
empire  of  Athens;  and  to  the  ]\Ielians'  argument  from 
justice  they  reply  with  cold-blooded  candor: 

"We  tell  you  this,  that  we  are  here  now  both  to  enlarge  our 
own  dominions  and  also  to  confer  about  the  sa\Tiig  of  your  city. 
.  .  ."  "But  win  you  not  accept?"  plead  the  Melians,  "that 
we  remain  quiet,  and  be  your  friends  (whereas  before  we  were 
your  enemies),  and  take  part  with  neither,"  "No,"  reply  the 
Athenians,  "for  your  enmit\-  doth  not  so  much  hurt  us  as  your 
friendship  would  be  an  argument  of  our  weakness,  and  your 
hatred  of  our  power,  amongst  those  whom  we  bear  rule  over. 
...  As  for  the  favor  of  the  gods,  we  expect  to  have  it  as  well 
as  you;  for  we  neither  do  nor  require  anything  contrary  to  what 
mankind  hath  decreed  either  concerning  the  worship  of  the  goda 
or  concerning  themselves.  For  of  the  gods  we  think  according 
to  the  common  opinion;  and  of  men  that  for  certain,  by  necessity 
of  nature,  they  will  everj-where  reign  over  such  as  they  be  too 
strong  for.  Neither  did  we  make  this  law,  nor  are  we  the  first 
that  use  it  made,  but  as  we  foimd  it,  and  shall  leave  it  to  pK)»- 
teritj'  forever,  so  also  we  use  it" 

Such  was  the  philosophy  of  the  natural  man  in  an- 
cient Greece,  and  such  is  the  philosophy  of  the  natural 
man  to-day,  however  it  may  be  disguised  and  glossed 
over;  it  is  based  on  the  instinctive  motive  of  pleonexia, 
the    "perpetual    and    restless   desire   of   power    after 


96  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

power,  that  ceaseth  only  in  death."  I  need  not  dwell 
on  the  kind  of  discontent  it  begets  in  the  soul,  a  discon- 
tent intrinsically  and  totally  opposite  to  that  which 
accompanies  the  purely  religious  motive. 

But  you  will  say  that  these  principles  of  conduct 
and  the  feelings  that  go  with  them  are  mere  abstrac- 
tions, fictions  of  the  analytical  reason;  no  man  is,  or 
can  be,  purely  religious  as  I  have  defined  the  term,  or 
purely  naturalistic.  And  that  is  true,  is  in  fact  the 
point  at  which  I  am  aiming.  On  the  one  hand,  no 
man  can  utterly  uproot  the  natural  impulses  out  of  his 
soul;  and  if  a  few  men  in  a  generation  approach  any- 
where near  it,  the  saints  and  martyrs  and  lonely  sages, 
they  are  by  their  virtues  cut  off  from  the  common  life 
of  mankind.  Were  all  men,  or  even  a  considerable 
proportion  of  men,  at  any  time  to  overcome  the  natural 
discontent  that  drives  us  on  to  seek  greater  possessions 
and  higher  honors  and  more  power,  then,  surely,  all 
ambition  and  invention  would  die,  the  wheels  of  prog- 
ress would  slacken  and  stop,  civilization  would  fail, 
and  society  would  sink  back  into  barbarism,  so  far  at 
least  as  we  measure  civilization  and  barbarism  by 
physical  standards.  Such  would  be  the  issue  of  "con- 
tent, the  bane  of  industry." 

On  the  other  hand,  it  will  be  said,  and  by  none  more 
loudly  than  by  the  champions  of  sentimental  natural- 
ism, who  belong- to  Mr.  Dew:ey's  school,  that  the  pic- 
ture of  the  man  controlled  by  the  "  perpetual  and  rest- 
less desire  of  power,"  and  by  that  alone,  is  a  pure 
caricature  of  human  nature.    Even  a  Napoleon,  they 


Religion  aiid  Social  Discontent  97 

will  say,  who  might  stand  for  the  model  of  such  a 
monstrosity,  yet  had  thought  for  the  glory  of  his  land, 
and  was  a  great  reformer  of  laws  and  institutions.  So, 
too,  the  Athenian  envoys  In  Thucydides,  cynical  as 
were  their  confessions  of  the  desire  of  power  to  ruie 
their  own  people  and  all  peoples,  nevertheless  were 
compelled  to  mix  some  honey  in  their  gall,  and  tried 
to  persuade  the  Melians  that  the  hegemony  of  Athens 
would  be  prudently  exercised  and  would  promote  the 
well-being  of  her  subject  states. 

Such  an  objection  we  readily  grant.  It  is  perfectly 
true  that  the  creature  in  whom  the  instinct  of  greed 
and  the  lust  of  power  should  reign  without  modifica- 
tion or  mitigation  would  be  no  man  at  all,  but  a  rav- 
ening beast  of  prey.  Both  the  religious  man  and  the 
natural  man,  as  I  have  portrayed  them,  are  avowedly 
abstractions,  at  least  to  the  extent  that  no  society 
could  exist  if  composed  of  either  type  in  its  purity. 
They  are  abstractions,  but  they  are  made  such  by  ab- 
stracting one  of  the  two  contrasted  impulses  that  do 
reign  together  in  virtually  every  human  breast,  and 
by  showing  what  would  result  If  one  of  these  impulses 
were  so  allowed  an  unhampered  sway  over  a  man's 
conduct.  And  now  and  then.  In  some  rare  individual, 
the  one  or  the  other  of  these  types  has  been  realized 
almost  In  its  purity,  the  religious  type  in  a  St.  Francis 
of  Assisi,  with  his  Ideals  of  poverty  and  chastity  and 
obedience,  the  natural  type,  if  not  in  a  Napoleon  or  an 
Alexander,  yet  In  certain  notorious  criminals  who  have 
raged  through  life  with  the  ferocity  of  a  starving  wolf. 


98  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

The  truth  we  must  recognize  is  that  both  these  mo- 
tives exist  in  the  human  heart,  and  that  the  conduct  of 
i  man,  not  as  the  saint  would  see  him  in  the  cloister  nor 
as  the  evolutionist  would  see  him  in  the  jungle,  but  as 
we  see  him  in  the  market-place  and  the  theatre  and 
the  courts  and  the  home — that  the  conduct  of  man  is 
a  resultant  from  these  two  contrary  impulsions. 

Now,  it  is  fair  to  say  that  religion  has  always  recog- 
nized the  legitimacy  of  another  standard  of  life  be- 
sides the  one  peculiarly  its  own.  It  has  seen  clearly 
that  the  ideal  of  poverty  and  chastity  and  obedience, 
which  would  uproot  altogether  the  natural  instincts,  is 
possible  for  very  few  men,  and  that  the  attempt  to 
enforce  such  a  standard  absolutely  on  society  at  large 
would  result  in  a  world  of  hypocrisies,  if  it  did  not  actu- 
ally run  counter  to  the  command  of  the  Creator.  So 
the  Christian  Church,  even  in  its  most  ascetic  days,  ad- 
mitted that  property  and  marriage  and  prestige  were 
the  normal  condition  of  life;  and  Buddhism  drew  up 
two  distinct  tables  of  law,  one  for  the  religious  state 
pure  and  simple,  the  other  for  the  mass  of  mankind 
wlio  are  engaged  in  practical  affairs.  But  both  Chris- 
tianity and  Buddhism  held  that  the  natural  instincts 
were  ruinous  if  left  to  themselves,  and  that  they  be- 
came salutary  instruments  of  welfare  only  when  lim- 
ited and  softened  and  illuminated  by  a  law  not  of 
'     themselves. 

On  the  contrary,  it  Is  of  the  very  essence  of  natural- 
ism that  it  should  admit  no  standard  but  its  own.  To 
a  naturalist  and  materialist  of  the  true  type  all  the 


Religion  and  Social  Discontent  99 

ideal  philosophy  of  the  past,  with  the  religion  which 
grows  out  of  it,  is  a  lying  cheat  of  the  imagination  and 
corresponds  to  nothing  real  in  the  nature  of  things;  its 
peace  is  a  pitiful  sham  cherished  by  those  who  are  too 
cowardly  to  face  the  facts;  its  promise  to  mitigate  the 
harsher  passions  of  greed  is  only  a  cunning  pretext  de- 
vised to  blind  the  dispossessed  of  their  rights  and  to 
fortify  the  owners  of  wealth  and  power  in  the  unmo- 
lested enjoj^ment  of  their  criminal  advantages.  From 
the  very  beginning  the  double  standard  of  things  spiri- 
tual and  material  has  been  the  foe  of  progress,  and  only 
then  jwiir~Justice  and  peace  and  prosperity  prevail, 
when  the  deceptions  of  priest  and  philosopher  are  sw^ept 
away  and  our  vision  of  material  values,  as  known  to 
the  scientist  in  his  laboratory  and  to  the  blacksmith 
at  his  forge,  is  not  confused  by  false  lights.  This,  I 
repeat,  is  no  caricature  of  the  sort  of  naturalistic  prag- 
matism that  is  sweeping  over  the  world. 

I  would  not  imply  that  all  these  enemies  of  religion,' 
or  even  those  of  them  who  are  most  influential  to-day, 
are  conscious  advocates  of  a  pitiless  egotism  or  believe 
that  the  repudiation  of  religion  would  throw  mankind 
into  that  anarchy  of  internecine  warfare  which  Hobbes 
described  as  the  state  of  nature,  or  w^hich  Nietzsche 
glorified  as  the  battle-field  of  the  superman.  It  is 
rather  the  mark  of  modern  naturalism  that  it  is  plas- 
tered up  and  down,  swathed  and  swaddled,  masked 
and  disguised,  with  sentimentalisms.  A  Dewey,  for 
instance,  wields  his  influence  over  the  young  and 
troubled  minds  of  our  generation  because  he  stands 


100  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

forth  as  a  reformer  with  a  precious  panacea  for  the 
calamities  of  history.  It  is  the  dream  of  another 
realm,  such  reformers  declare,  that  has  riveted  upon 
us  the  chains  of  lethargy  and  despair;  shatter  these,  let 
men  become  aware  of  their  real  nature,  let  them  see 
that  the  only  truth  is  to  recognize  this  life  as  all  they 
have,  and  that  their  only  hope  of  happiness  is  to  get 
together  and  increase  the  physical  comforts  of  exist- 
ence— let  this  once  come  to  pass,  and  at  last  a  peace 
born  of  universal  benevolence  will  settle  down  upon 
this  long-vexed  planet.  Sympathy,  they  maintain,  is 
a  natural  instinct  of  the  heart,  as  surely  as  the  lust  of 
power  and  possessions;  rather,  it  is  the  genuine  basis 
of  nature,  and  of  itself  will  control  the  other  natural 
instincts  if  unhampered  by  false  ideals.  That  is  a 
pretty  faith;  but  is  it  true?  No  doubt  the  human 
heart  is  swayed  by  sympathy  and  benevolence;  but  are 
these  the  qualities  of  the  natural  man  ?  I  will  not  go 
into  the  answer  given  to  this  question  by  the  religious 
minds  from  Plato  down  to  Cardinal  Newman,  who  all 
with  one  accord  assert  that  sympathy  and  benevolence 
of  an  active  sort  do  not  spring  up  from  the  soil  of  na- 
ture, but  result  from  the  reaching  doT\Ti,  so  to  speak, 
of  a  higher  principle  into  the  lusts  of  the  flesh.  They 
all  maintain,  with  one  voice,  that  the  only  effective 
bond  of  union,  whether  it  be  of  friendship  or  of  society, 
is  through  our  perception  of  oneness  in  the  spirit. 
Mercy  droppeth  down  as  a  gentle  dew  from  heaven. 
I  will  not  argue  from  this  thesis,  because  it  would  carry 
us  into  the  brier  patch  of  metaphysics.    But  history 


Religion  and  Social  Discontent  101 

and  science  both  would  seem  to  enforce  the  bitter  con- 
viction that  at  the  best  the  instinct  of  natural  sym- 
pathy is  a  fragile  and  treacherous  support  against  the 
assaults  of  a  restless  and  perpetual  desire  of  power.  ■ 
Greece  learnt  this,  to  her  frightful  ruin,  when  she  fol- 
lowed the  law  of  nature  as  avowed  by  the  Athenians 
at  Melos;  and  to-day  we  have  rediscovered  it  in  the 
same  desolation  of  war.  That,  I  fear,  is  the  lesson  of^ 
history.  And  science  has  no  different  lesson.  Indeed, 
by  the  natural  man  I  would  signify  precisely  the  reali- ' 
zation,  if  such  were  possible,  of  the  principle  of  natural 
selection  and  the  survival  of  the  fittest  by  which  the 
world  is  governed  as  the  scientist,  the  natural  philoso- 
pher, as  he  used  to  be  called,  sees  it  when  he  eliminates 
the  religious  idea  from  his  view.  I  mean  nothing  more 
than  what  Huxley,  the  protagonist  of  evolutionary 
philosophy,  meant  when,  in  his  essay  on  The  Struggle 
for  Existence,  he  thus  described  the  law  of  nature  as 
actually  seen  in  operation: 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  moralist,  the  animal  world  is  on 
about  the  same  level  as  a  gladiator's  show.  The  creatm^es  are 
fairly  well  treated,  and  set  to  fight — whereby  the  strongest,  the 
swnftest,  and  the  cunningest  live  to  fight  another  day.  The  spec- 
tator has  no  need  to  turn  his  thumbs  down,  as  no  quarter  is 
given.  He  must  admit  that  the  skill  and  training  displayed  are 
wonderful.  But  he  must  shut  his  eyes  if  he  would  not  see  that 
more  or  less  enduring  suffering  is  the  meed  of  both  vanquished 
and  victor.  And  since  the  great  game  is  going  on  in  every 
corner  of  the  world,  thousands  of  times  a  minute;  since,  were 
our  ears  sharp  enough,  we  need  not  descend  to  the  gates  of  hell 
to  hear 


102  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

"sospiri,  pianti,  ed  alti  guai, 

Voci  alte  e  fioche,  e  suon  di  man  con  elle" 

— it  seems  to  follow  that,  if  this  world  is  governed  by  beneve- 
lence,  it  must  be  a  different  sort  of  benevolence  from  that  of 
John  Howard. 

And  I  think,  if  you  look  closely  into  the  social  theory 
based  on  the  naturalistic,  or  let  us  say  the  purely  eco- 
nomic, view  of  life,  you  will  find  that  beneath  its  mask 
of  sentimental  sympathy  the  reality  is  a  face  of  greed 
and  animal  rapacity.  According  to  this  theory,  prog- 
ress is  a  result  of  discontent.  Because  men  are  discon- 
tented with  their  present  state  they  push  out  for  some- 
thing better.  And  no  doubt  in  a  half-way  that  is  true. 
But  when  discontent  is  associated  with  material  stand- 
ards alone,  and  purchasable  comfort,  and  worldly  op- 
portunity, or,  to  put  the  matter  in  its  most  favorable 
light,  when  success  and  the  goal  of  achievement  are 
measured  by  the  pleasures,  however  you  may  refine 
them,  and  by  the  pride  of  a  few  brief  years  of  physical 
existence,  beyond  which  there  is  nothing,  and  when 
for  failure  in  these  no  compensation  is  held  out,  no 
supernatural  hope,  no  refuge  of  peace,  here  and  now, 
such  as  the  world  cannot  give — when  the  driving  force 
of  progress  is  so  presented,  what  is  there  in  the  nature 
of  things  to  offer  in  the  long  run  any  effective  resistance 
to  the  innate  desire  of  power  after  power  that  ends 
only  with  death?     What  equal  counterpoise  will  you 


Religion  and  Social  Discontent  103 

set  against  that  instinct  of  pleonexia  which  reaches  out 
for  ever  more  and  more  ? 

Philosophy  is  full  of  mockeries.  These  honorable^) 
gentlemen  who  are  teaching  a  pure  naturalism  in  the 
schoolroom,  who  denounce  the  content  of  religion  and  i 
other-worldly  philosophy  as  a  base  acquiescence,  who  in 
the  restlessness  of  an  itching  egotism  go  out  as  mission- 
aries to  the  people  of  the  far  Orient,  may  deceive  them- 
selves and  may  try  to  deceive  us;  their  language  may 
be  sleek  with  the  sentiment  of  brotherly  love,  but  strip/ 
off  its  disguise,  and  the  social  theory  they  are  proclaim-^ 
ing  w^ill  leer  forth  in  its  true  face  as  an  incentive  not 
to  progress  but  to  the  anarchy  of  the  jungle.  These 
men  are  distilling  into  society  a  discontent  that  knows 
no  satisfaction,  that  must  engender  only  bitterness  of 
disappointment  and  mutual  distrust  and  hatred,  and 
that  in  the  end,  if  not  checked  by  other  motives,  will 
bring  about  internecine  warfare  and  a  suicide  of  civi- 
lization of  which  the  hideous  years  through  which  we 
have  just  passed  are  a  warning  admonition.  And  these 
teachers  have  the  field  to-day.  We  applaud  them  for 
their  pretensions  of  philanthropy,  even  when  we  doubt 
the  utility  of  their  philosophy.  We  are  browbeaten  by 
the  volume  of  their  noisy  propaganda.  We  are  mealy- 
mouthed  and  afraid  to  speak  out  in  open  denunciation, 
even  when  secretly  we  burn  with  indignation  at  the 
baseness  of  their  words.  We  sulk  in  silence,  as  if  we 
had  nothing  to  say.  Meanwhile  they  have  had  the 
field  to  themselves,  and  the  world  every  day  is  more 
filled  with  fear  and  disquiet. 


104  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

There  Is  no  danger  that  by  opposing  other  views  of 
life  to  this  insolent  naturalism  we  shall  put  an  end  to 
that  normal  discontent  with  material  conditions  which 
may  be  a  necessary  incentive  to  natural  and  social 
progress.  Certainly,  however  it  may  have  been  at 
other  times,  we  need  apprehend  no  such  danger  now. 
In  a  world  manifestly  distracted  and  blown  from  its 
moorings,  in  a  society  seething  already  with  envy,  it  is 
not  the  part  of  wisdom  to  sow  broadcast  words  that 
are  calculated  to  inflame  discontent  into  passionate 
hatred  or  sullen  despair.  That  way  leads  to  madness. 
What  we  need  is  rather  a  clearer  perception  of,  and  a 
firmer  insIsteiice"on,  thDse~immaterial  values  which  it 
is  within  the  power  of  every  man  to  make  his  own, 
whatever  may  be  the  seeming  injustice  of  his  material 
condition.  We  need  rather  to  emphasize  the  simple 
truth  that  poverty  is  not  the  only,  or  indeed  the  worst, 
of  mortal  evils,  that  happiness  does  not  consist  mainly 
in  the  things  which  money  can  buy,  that  the  man  of 
narrow  means  may  enrich  himself  with  treasures  which 
only  he  can  give  to  himself,  and  which  no  one  can  take 
from  him,  that  the  purest  satisfaction  is  in  the  sense 
of  work  honestly  done  and  duties  well  met,  and  a 
mind  and  conscience  at  ease  with  itself.  Even  to  the 
very  poor,  if  such  must  be,  religion  may  offer  manifold 
compensations.  "Blessed  be  ye  poor,"  it  was  said, 
"for  yours  is  the  kingdom  of  God."  Shall  we  say  that 
these  words  were  spoken  in  ignorance  or  jest  or  mock- 
ery ?  I  think  not.  We  for  the  moment  may  have  lost 
the  key  to  their  meaning,  we  may  have  listened  to 


Religion  and  Social  Discontent  105 

teachers  who  turn  them  into  ridicule;  nevertheless,  they 
are  true  words,  rich  with  a  gift  of  sohd  content. 

But  it  is  not  the  less  fortunate  and  the  poor  alone, 
or  I  might  even  say  chiefly,  who  need  to  hear  the  pre- 
cepts which  the  new  philosophy  is  drowning  with  its 
clamorous  tongue.  If  the  home  of  theoretical  mate- 
rialism is  in  the  lecture-rooms  of  philosophy,  the  home 
of  practical  materialism  is  in  the  offices  of  Wall  Street. 
If  there  is  any  truth  that  needs  to  be  reiterated  to-day, 
it  is  the  simple  truth  that  a  man  may  heap  up  riches 
and  increase  his  power  indefinitely,  and  command  all 
the  visible  sources  of  pleasure,  and  still  be  a  poor, 
mean  creature,  a  mere  beggar  in  the  veritable  joys  and 
honors  of  life.  He  that  has  many  possessions  needs 
be  a  strong  man  to  escape  their  strangling  grip.  They 
wrap  him  about,  they  color  all  his  thinking,  they  hang 
like  a  heavy  curtain,  as  it  were,  between  himself  and 
his  soul.  You  have  heard  the  saying :  "  It  is  easier  for 
a  camel  to  go  through  a  needle's  eye  than  for  a  rich 
man  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God";  that  is  a  hard 
lesson,  but  in  reality  it  is  only  an  Oriental  way  of  ex- 
pressing what  Plato  had  taught  long  before  in  the 
Academy:  "Neither  when  one  has  his  heart  set  on 
gaining  money,  save  by  fair  means,  or  even  is  at  ease 
with  such  gaining,  does  he  then  bestow  gifts  of  honor 
upon  his  soul;  rather,  he  degrades  it  thereby,  selling 
what  is  precious  and  fair  in  the  soul  at  the  price  of  a 
little  gold,  whereas  all  the  gold  on  the  earth  and  under 
the  earth  is  not  equal  in  value  to  virtue."  That  is  the 
invariable  lesson  of  religion  and  the  idealistic  philoso- 


106  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

phy.  Certainly,  it  is  a  truth  we  shall  not  recover  by 
listening  to  the  words  of  the  new  naturalism.  It  is  not 
by  a  philosophy  that  preaches  social  discontent  as  the 
means  of  progress,  and  measures  content  by  material 
values,  however  it  may  disguise  the  banality  of  its  aims 
in  a  sentimental  philanthropy — it  is  not  by  such  a 
philosophy  that  justice  and  mercy  and  humility  shall 
be  imposed  upon  the  natural  pride  of  those  who  have 
the  larger  share  of  this  world's  goods. 

It  is  true  that  religion,  or  religious  philosophy,  as  its 
friends  and  foes  have  seen  from  the  beginning,  is  an 
alleviator  of  discontent  and  a  brake  upon  Innovation; 
but  the  content  it  offers  from  the  world  of  immaterial 
values  is  a  necessary  counterpoise  to  the  mutual  envy 
and  materialistic  greed  of  the  natural  man,  and  the 
conservatism  it  inculcates  is  not  the  ally  of  sullen  and 
predatory  privilege  but  of  orderly  amelioration. 


THE  TEACHINGS  OF  JESUS  AS  FACTORS  IN 
INTERNATIONAL  POLITICS,  WITH  ESPE- 
CIAL REFERENCE  TO  FAR-EASTERN  PROB- 
LEMS 

BY 
JEREMIAH  W.  JENKS,  PH.D.,  LL.D. 

RESEARCH  PROFESSOR  OF  GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  ADMEMISTRA- 
TION,  AND  DIRECTOR  OF  DIVISION  OF  ORIENTAL  COMMERCE  AND 
POLITICS,  NEW  YORK  UNIVERSITY 

(Note. — This  address  was  delivered  on  November  4,  1921, 
before  the  Conference  on  Limitation  of  Armaments  and  Far 
Eastern  Questions  began  its  work.  It  is  now  published  some 
months  after  the  Conference  was  held.  Readers  who  are  fa- 
miliar with  the  work  of  the  Conference  will  be  interested  in 
noting  how  far  the  Governments  concerned  followed  the  princi- 
ples laid  down  in  the  address.  Most  will  probably  agree  that 
no  other  important  international  conference  dealing  with  ques- 
tions of  this  type  has  come  so  near  following  the  principles  of 
Jesus'  teachings  here  laid  down  as  did  the  Conference  at  Wash- 
ington. Certainly  it  will  be  of  interest  to  those  who  read  the 
address  to  compare  its  principles  with  those  followed  by  the 
conferees.) 


THE  TEACHINGS  OF  JESUS  AS  FACTORS  IN 
INTERNATIONAL  POLITICS,  WITH  ESPE- 
CIAL REFERENCE  TO  FAR  EASTERN  PROB- 
LEMS 

I.    Introduction 

No  other  political  event  of  the  past  year  has  awak- 
ened so  great  interest  and  hope  as  the  calling  by  Presi- 
dent Harding  of  the  Conference  on  Limitation  of 
Armaments  and  Far-Eastern  Questions.  The  greatest 
statesmen  of  Europe,  America,  and  the  Far  East  have 
avowed  their  belief  in  the  supreme  significance  to  world 
civilization  and  political  and  industrial  progress  of  such 
a  conference,  and  the  sincerity  of  their  statements  is 
proved  by  the  caliber  of  their  representatives. 

Secretary  Hughes  has  expressed  the  desire  that  lead- 
ing Christian  bodies  in  the  United  States  be  active  in 
presenting  their  views  to  the  public  and  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  conference,  in  the  hope  that  thereby  the 
influence  of  a  powerful  public  opinion  may  be  exerted 
along  the  noblest  lines.  It  seems  peculiarly  fitting, 
therefore,  and  m  full  accord  with  the  spu-it  of  the 
Bross  Foundation,  that  an  attempt  be  made  to  search 
out  the  bearings  which  the  teachings  of  the  founder  of 
the  Christian  religion  may  have  upon  the  solution  of 
these  most  important  political  problems.  Moreover,  if 
we  are  to  be  just  and  helpful,  his  teachings  must  be 

109 


110  Christianity  and  Problevis  of  To-day 

analyzed  and  treated  not  as  religion  and  therefore  sa- 
cred, but  as  psychology  and  political  or  social  science, 
as  are  those  of  Aristotle  or  Kant  or  Herbert  Spencer. 
Any  careful  student  of  the  New  Testament  recog- 
nizes at  once  that  however  deep  Jesus  laid  the  philo- 
sophical foundation  of  his  life-work  in  human  nature, 
his  teachings  dealt  directly  with  the  day-by-day  prac- 
tical activities  of  the  individuals  with  whom  he  talked. 
His  direct  appeals  to  his  hearers  were  so  to  change 
their  outlook  upon  life  as  to  make  of  them  new  crea- 
tures. They  were  to  do  their  life-work  in  a  new  and 
better  way,  and  the  final  outcome  of  this  changed, 
wiser,  and  loftier  mental  and  spiritual  attitude  on  the 
part  of  great  masses  of  people  was  to  be  a  new  type  of 
society,  a  better  world  which  he  designated  the  Kmg- 
dom  of  God. 

II.    Jesus'  Fundamental  Teachings 

Through  the  years  of  his  ministry  Jesus  met  and 
discussed  the  issues  of  life  and  society  with  many  thou- 
sands of  people.  We  have  the  records  giving  an  ac- 
count of  his  sayings  in  many  specific  cases  and  of  the 
marvellously  illuminating  illustrations  of  his  principles 
of  living  contained  in  his  parables.  Moreover,  the  ac- 
count of  his  life  and  his  dealings  with  his  contempo- 
raries—friends, critics,  and  persecutors— illustrates  bet- 
ter, perhaps,  even  than  his  teachings  his  fundamental 
principles  of  living.  A  careful  analysis  of  the  various 
topics  which  he  discussed  and  of  the  accounts  of  his 
acts  will  show  that  there  were  a  few  principles  which 


The  Teachings  of  Jesiis  111 

are  absolutely  basic,  and  which  are  of  such  a  nature 
that  as  they  entered  the  consciousness  of  men  they 
changed  their  lives;  and  in  consequence,  in  the  course 
of  the  centuries  that  have  followed,  they  have  wrought 
a  very  considerable  transformation  in  society. 

Our  international  problems  to-day,  both  economic 
and  political,  have  to  do  primarily  with  men's  motives 
and  purposes.  If  men  and  nations  can  attain  the  right 
spirit  toward  one  another  and  toward  their  own  duties, 
the  most  difficult  problems  are  well  on  the  way  toward 
solution.  It  is  worth  while  then  to  analyze  with  care 
the  principles  of  living  of  this  greatest  moulder  of 
human  motive. 

III.    Truth 

The  first  of  these  principles  to  be  enumerated  is 
"Truth,"  taking  the  word  in  its  most  comprehensive 
sense. 

In  the  light  of  our  modern  social  studies  every  one 
must  concede  that  truth  is  the  greatest  social  virtue, 
and  a  lie  the  greatest  social  sin.  It  may  well  have 
been  the  case  in  barbarous  times  that  fear  was  the 
binding  force  that  held  society  together  and  that 
caused  its  different  members  to  function;  but  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  in  modern  society,  both  economic 
and  political,  confidence  is  the  chief  essential  factor  to 
any  effective  functioning.  It  is  a  commonplace  among 
business  men  that  modern  business  rests  upon  credit, 
and  that  credit  depends  absolutely  upon  the  confidence 
that  men  will  live  up  to  their  contracts,  and  that  a 


112  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

man's  word,  however  given,  must  be  kept  literally  and 
rigidly.  Trickery  and  deception  may  win  temporary 
gains,  but  no  great  permanent  business  can  be  built 
except  on  the  basis  of  fair  dealing.  Good  measure 
and  the  qualities  represented  by  strict  accuracy  in  the 
maintenance  of  standards  are  all  required  if  a  business 
is  to  succeed.  Even  advertising  is  now  conducted  with 
strict  regard  for  truth.  In  politics,  too,  as  well  as  in 
business,  truth  pays  in  the  long  run,  as  even  the  diplo- 
mats are  beginning  to  concede.  Truth,  too,  means 
seeing  straight  as  well  as  talking  straight. 

There  is  perhaps  no  more  striking  characteristic  of 
Jesus'  mental  attitude  toward  truth  than  his  clarity  of 
vision,  the  keenness  of  his  insight  into  the  real  mean- 
ings of  things.  He  did  not  believe  in  "cleansing  the 
outside  of  the  cup  or  of  the  platter  and  leaving  the  in- 
side untouched."  He  did  not  think  that  a  courteous 
manner  and  fair  promises  revealed  the  character  of  a 
man.  "As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he."  He 
did  not  believe  in  long  prayers  that  recite  the  virtues 
of  the  petitioners.  God  looks  into  the  heart  as  Jesus 
did  and  sees  the  man  as  he  is. 

Moreover,  in  his  interpretation  of  the  law  he  was  not 
content  with  the  mere  word.  He  must  understand  the 
purpose  and  significance  of  the  law.  Life  and  life's 
activities  were  with  him  not  matters  of  form;  they  were 
matters  of  purpose  and  intent.  WTien  criticised  for 
violation  of  the  law  regarding  the  Sabbath  Day,  he 
recognized  to  the  full  the  sanctity  of  the  day,  but 
claimed  that  the  purpose  and  not  the  form  of  the  deed 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  113 

determined  its  sanctity.  "The  Sabbath  was  made  for 
man  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath."  If  the  purpose  of 
one's  acts  is  the  upHft  of  humanity  or  the  bringing  of 
comfort  to  a  suffering  soul,  the  deed  is  good,  the  Sabbath 
is  not  broken.  These  traits  of  Jesus  show  clarity  of 
mental  vision  and  mental  integrity,  the  ultimate  es- 
sence of  truth.  He  does  not  necessarily  condemn  the 
moral  integrity  of  those  who  keep  the  letter  of  the  law 
in  good  faith,  not  seeing  its  spirit;  but  he  does  say  that 
they  do  not  know  the  truth. 

Aside  from  this,  however,  no  other  sin  of  humanity 
seems  so  to  arouse  his  righteous  indignation  as  does 
wilful  misrepresentation,  conscious  hypocrisy.  "  When 
ye  pray,  ye  shall  not  be  as  hypocrites:  for  they  love  to 
stand  and  pray  in  the  synagogues  and  in  the  corners 
of  the  streets,  that  they  may  be  seen  of  men.  Verily  I 
say  unto  you,  they  have  received  their  reward'* 
(Matt.  6:5). 

"Woe  unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites! 
for  ye  tithe  mint  and  anise  and  cummin,  and  have  left 
undone  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law,  justice,  and 
mercy,  and  faith:  but  these  ye  ought  to  have  done, 
and  not  to  have  left  the  other  undone.  .  .  .  Woe 
unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites !  for  ye  are 
like  unto  whited  sepulchres,  which  outwardly  appear 
beautiful,  but  inwardly  are  full  of  dead  men's  bones, 
and  of  all  uncleanness.  Even  so  ye  also  outwardly  ap- 
pear righteous  unto  men,  but  inwardly  ye  are  full  of 
hypocrisy  and  iniquity"  (Matt.  23:23,  27,  28). 


114  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

Jesus  recognized  also  how  imperative  is  the  need  of 
a  clear  statement  of  thought  and  opinion,  if  one  is  to 
deal  honorably  and  successfully  with  others.  Not  only 
does  he  condemn  profanity  in  the  taking  of  oaths,  but 
he  goes  still  farther  than  that.  "Let  your  speech  be, 
Yea,  yea;  Nay,  nay;  and  whatsoever  is  more  than  these 
is  of  the  evil  one "  (Matt.  5 :  37) .  Throughout  his 
teachings  we  see  how  direct  and  clear  are  his  own 
statements,  so  that  it  is  impossible,  if  one  considers 
those  to  whom  he  was  speaking  and  the  circumstances 
under  which  his  words  were  uttered,  to  misunderstand 
his  meaning. 

Nevertheless,  there  seems  to  be  equal  evidence  that 
he  saw  the  need  of  suiting  his  words  to  the  occasion 
and  to  the  people  with  whom  he  was  dealing,  in  order 
to  secure  the  best  effect  for  what  he  was  saying.  "If 
thy  brother  sin  against  thee,  go,  show  him  his  fault 
between  thee  and  him  alone:  if  he  hear  thee,  thou  hast 
gained  thy  brother.  But  if  he  hear  thee  not,  take 
with  thee  one  or  two  more,  that  at  the  mouth  of  two 
witnesses  or  three  every  word  may  be  established. 
And  if  he  refuse  to  hear  them,  tell  it  unto  the  church: 
and  if  he  refuse  to  hear  the  church  also,  let  him  be 
unto  thee  as  the  Gentile  and  the  publican"  (Matt. 
18:15-17). 

Observe  the  skill  with  which  Jesus  dealt  with  his 
questioners  when  they  attempted  to  corner  him  in 
argument.  When  the  chief  priests  and  elders  asked 
him  by  what  authority  he  did  those  things,  he  re- 
sponded by  saying:  "I  also  will  ask  you  one  question, 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  115 

which  if  ye  tell  me,  I  likewise  will  tell  you  by  what 
authority  I  do  these  things.  The  baptism  of  John, 
whence  was  it  ?  from  heaven  or  from  men  ?  And  they 
reasoned  with  themselves,  saying,  If  we  shall  say, 
From  heaven;  he  will  say  unto  us.  Why  then  did  ye 
not  believe  him?  But  if  we  shall  say.  From  men;  we 
fear  the  multitude;  for  all  hold  John  as  a  prophet" 
(Matt.  21:23-26). 

When  the  Pharisees  inquire  whether  it  is  "lawful  to 
give  tribute  unto  Csesar  or  not,"  he  shows  them  their 
Roman  coins  with  the  image  and  superscription  of 
Caesar  and  replies,  "Render  therefore  unto  Csesar  the 
things  that  are  Caesar's;  and  unto  God  the  things  that 
are  God's"  (Matt.  22  :  21). 

With  all  of  his  insistence  upon  absolute  uprightness 
and  truth-telling  and  plainness  of  speech,  we  find  no 
hint  of  a  lack  of  courtesy  or  kindness,  or  of  diplomacy 
in  the  best  modern  American  sense  of  that  much- 
abused  word.  The  direct,  truth-telling,  open  diplo- 
macy that  is  imperative  upon  a  democratic  government 
like  the  United  States,  where  it  is  impossible  to  have 
secret  treaties  or  for  any  great  length  of  time  even 
confidential  understandings  between  nations  that  are 
not  public  in  their  character,  is  quite  in  accord  with 
the  teachings  of  Jesus;  whereas  the  secret  treaties  such 
as  those  that  led  to  grave  misunderstanding  on  the 
part  of  the  United  States  when  it  entered  the  Great 
War  are  directly  contrary  to  the  spirit  and  practice  of 
Jesus'  teachings.  It  is  not  sufficient  to  call  such  prac- 
tice of  a  secret  diplomacy  "discreet,"  which  would  be 


116  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

proper;  but  often,  as  in  the  cases  mentioned,  where 
vital  interests  of  others  are  involved,  such  treaties  lead 
to  direct  deception,  and,  in  consequence,  to  injurious 
practices.  Indeed,  it  is  often  because  of  the  unjust 
nature  of  such  treaties  that  the  attempt  is  made  to 
keep  them  secret. 

In  the  farewell  visit  with  his  disciples  just  before  his 
betrayal,  Jesus  showed  them  how  throughout  the 
period  of  their  discipleship  he  had  been  gradually 
teaching  them  as  they  were  able  to  understand.  He 
had  not  taught  them  all  his  life  principles  to  begin 
with,  because  they  were  not  yet  ready  to  receive  all  of 
the  truth.  And  even  in  this  last  discourse,  when  he 
was  rehearsing  for  the  disciples  the  nature  of  his  rela- 
tions with  them  and  their  relations  with  the  world,  he 
still  gave  them  to  understand  that  only  as  they  became 
equipped  to  receive  the  truth  could  all  the  truth  be 
given  them.  "I  have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto 
you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now.  Howbeit  when  he, 
the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  he  shall  guide  you  into  all 
the  truth.  .  .  ."  (John  16 :  12,  13). 

In  his  final  words  to  them  he  expressed  his  convic- 
tion that  he  had  already  so  put  his  principles  of  life 
and  action  into  the  minds  of  men  that  through  their 
gradual  fruition  in  the  future  there  would  be  given 
unto  us  a  new  earth,  a  new  society,  and  he  concluded: 
"These  thmgs  have  I  spoken  unto  you,  that  in  me  ye 
may  have  peace.  In  the  world  ye  have  tribulation: 
but  be  of  good  cheer:  I  have  overcome  the  world" 
(John   16 :  33).    His  task  had  been  completed.    He 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  117 

was  confident  that  his  principles  in  time  would  con- 
quer and  give  the  world  peace. 

IV.    The  Worth  of  the  Common  Man:  Individual 
Responsibility 

The  greatest  single  contribution  that  Jesus  made  to 
social  and  political  science  was  his  insistence  upon  the 
worth  of  the  common  man.  That  is  practically  a 
declaration  of  the  moral  equality  of  all  mature  indi- 
viduals, rich  and  poor,  bond  or  free,  a  declaration  of 
their  duty  to  make  their  own  decisions  on  questions 
of  right  and  wrong,  and  in  consequence  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  responsibility  which  each  must  bear  for  the 
conduct  of  his  own  life. 

This  was  a  new  philosophy  that  Jesus  brought  into 
the  world.  No  one  of  the  great  teachers  among  the 
Greek  philosophers  had  dreamed  of  such  a  doctrine. 
In  the  Republic  of  Plato  and  in  the  writings  of  Aristotle 
we  find,  indeed,  a  type  of  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment, but  in  that  government  the  rulers  are  to  be  the 
intellectual  aristocrats,  the  philosophers,  while  the  great 
mass  of  the  common  people  are  to  be  subservient. 
Among  the  ancient  Hebrews,  even  in  the  days  of  the 
kingdom,  there  was  more  than  an  inkling  of  a  democ- 
racy. The  common  man  had  many  rights  which  were 
protected  by  the  law,  but  he  had  relatively  few  re- 
sponsibilities. If  he  obeyed  the  law  as  that  law  was 
given  him  by  the  priests,  he  was  doing  right.  The 
responsibility  did  not  rest  upon  him  to  interpret  the 
law.     And  in  the  days  when  Jesus  lived,  the  priests 


118  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

and  the  commentators  prescribed  in  minute  detail  the 
appUcation  of  the  law  to  life :  the  clothing  which  should 
be  worn,  the  food  that  should  be  eaten,  the  work  that 
should  be  done  on  the  Sabbath — all  the  minute  forms 
of  religious  ceremonial  were  matters  of  prescription 
which  the  common  man  need  not  think  about.  He 
was  to  do  as  he  was  told.  How  revolutionary,  then, 
was  this  doctrine  that  Jesus  taught  of  the  infinite  worth 
of  the  individual  human  soul  1 

"Behold  the  birds  of  the  heaven,  that  they  sow  not, 
neither  do  they  reap,  nor  gather  into  barns;  and  your 
heavenly  Father  feedeth  them.  Are  not  ye  of  much 
more  value  than  they?"  (Matt.  6:26). 

And  again:  "If  God  doth  so  clothe  the  grass  of  the 
field,  which  to-day  is,  and  to-morrow  is  cast  into  the 
oven,  shall  he  not  much  more  clothe  you,  O  ye  of  little 
faith?"  (Matt.  6:30). 

"Are  not  two.  sparrows  sold  for  a  penny?  and  not 
one  of  them  shall  fall  on  the  ground  without  your 
Father:  but  the  very  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  num- 
bered. Fear  not  therefore;  ye  are  of  more  value  than 
many  sparrows"  (Matt.  10:29-31). 

But  with  this  doctrine  of  individual  worth  is  com- 
bined, of  necessity,  the  principle  of  individual  respon- 
sibility. Each  man  is  to  decide  for  himself  what  his 
life  shall  be,  and  his  punislmaent  or  reward  at  the 
hands  of  God,  that  is,  the  development  or  degradation 
of  his  own  character  and  soul  are  dependent  upon  his 
determining  decision. 

"Lay   not   up   for   yourselves  treasures   upon   the 


The  TeacJiings  of  Jesus  119 

earth,  where  moth  and  rust  consume,  and  where 
thieves  break  through  and  steal:  but  lay  up  for  your- 
selves treasures  in  heaven,  where  neither  moth  nor 
rust  doth  consume,  and  where  thieves  do  not  break 
through  nor  steal:  for  where  thy  treasure  is,  there  will 
thy  heart  be  also.  .  .  .  No  man  can  serve  two  mas- 
ters: for  either  he  will  hate  the  one,  and  love  the  other; 
or  else  he  will  hold  to  one,  and  despise  the  other.  Ye 
cannot  serve  God  and  mammon"  (Matt.  6  :  19-21,  24). 

"Whosoever  therefore  shall  break  one  of  these  least 
commandments,  and  shall  teach  men  so,  shall  be  called 
least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven :  but  whosoever  shall  do 
and  teach  them,  he  shall  be  called  great  in  the  king- 
dom of  heaven"  (Matt.  5  :  19). 

Then  again:  "What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain 
the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?"  And  it  is  his 
individual  decision  that  determines. 

This  development  through  the  bearing  of  responsi- 
bility demands,  of  course,  independence  of  judgment. 
We  have  already  noted  how  in  his  own  life,  in  inter- 
preting the  ancient  laws  and  in  determining  his  course 
of  action,  Jesus  held  himself  independent  of  the  deci- 
sions or  interpretations  of  the  laws  as  given  by  others. 
He  must  think  out  by  the  light  of  his  own  reason,  in- 
dependently, his  course  of  action.  He  likewise  ex- 
pected his  disciples,  as  he  sent  them  on  their  mission, 
to  judge  and  determine  their  own  actions. 

But  if  I  demand  from  others  the  right  to  think  inde- 
pendently and  to  determine  my  own  line  of  action,  it 
is,  of  course,  imperative  upon  me  to  grant  that  same 


120  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

right  of  Independent  action  to  my  fellow  men.  I  ought 
not  to  insist  upon  my  right  to  bear  my  own  responsi- 
bilities without  being  tolerant  of  the  rights  of  others; 
and  Jesus  nowhere  in  his  teachings  or  life  shows  any 
lack  of  tolerance.  Perhaps  the  most  striking  incident 
of  this  trait  of  character  is  found  in  the  broad-minded 
way  in  which  he  dealt  with  the  woman  taken  in  adul- 
tery. With  ironical  scorn  for  her  hypocritical  accusers 
he  said:  "Let  him  that  is  without  sin  among  you  first 
cast  a  stone."  And  then  he  gives  a  judgment  as  mer- 
ciful as  it  is  just.  "Neither  do  I  condemn  thee;  go 
and  sin  no  more."  So  long  as  repentance  and  deter- 
mination for  right  living  in  the  future  is  secured,  for- 
giveness can  be  granted.  There  must  be  no  prejudice 
about  formal  rules  or  customs. 

In  his  scornful  condemnation  of  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees,  he  always  placed  the  emphasis  not  upon  any 
difference  of  opinion,  but  upon  their  hj^ocrisy  and 
cruelty.  A  difference  of  opinion  need  not  be  con- 
demned, but  hypocrisy,  falsity  in  mind  and  heart,  is 
worthy  of  the  utmost  contempt  and  punishment. 

No  person  who  bears  responsibility  can  safely  make 
decisions  without  proper  study  of  his  problems  and 
preparation  for  his  work.  Jesus'  life  and  teachings 
exemplify  this  principle  completely.  So  much  empha- 
sis has  been  placed  by  many  Christian  teachers  and 
writers  upon  the  divine  nature  of  Jesus  that  many 
assume  that  there  was  given  him  all  knowledge  and 
wisdom  in  some  superhuman  way  entirely  different 
from  that  by  which  ordinary  human  beings  attain  their 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  121 

knowledge  and  bases  of  judgment.  Such  persons  ap- 
parently overlook  the  fact  that  if  that  were  true  Jesus 
could  not  have  been  tempted  in  all  points  as  we  are. 
From  the  evidence  given  in  the  New  Testament,  Jesus, 
when  a  boy  of  twelve  years  of  age,  showed  a  remark- 
able precocity  and  mental  grasp  of  the  deep  problems 
of  life  in  his  discussions  with  the  wise  men  in  the  Tem- 
ple. Nevertheless,  he  did  not  venture  upon  teaching 
in  any  formal  way  and  making  public  his  convictions 
regarding  life  and  society  until  he  was  some  thirty 
years  of  age.  Moreover,  there  was  a  progressive  de- 
velopment in  his  views  and  plans  for  the  redemption  of 
humanity.  During  his  period  of  preparation,  he  made 
himself  master  of  the  Hebraic  law  and  the  writings  of 
the  leading  commentators  upon  It.  Evidently,  also, 
while  he  was  working  at  his  trade  of  carpenter,  and 
presumably  also  as  master  carpenter  and  contractor 
and  citizen,  he  had  been  studying  and  reflecting  most 
deeply  upon  the  traits  of  human  nature  as  manifested 
in  the  people  whom  he  met  and  those  with  whom  he 
had  come  in  contact  through  his  work  and  studies. 
When  he  began  his  public  ministry,  he  had  at  his  com- 
mand the  most  profound  knowledge  of  human  motive 
and  of  human  nature  possessed  by  any  of  the  great 
teachers  of  history.  While  he  left  us  no  formal  ana- 
lytical discussion  on  psychology,  and  probably  never 
made  one,  as  did  Aristotle  or  Immanuel  Kant  or  Wil- 
liam James,  none  of  them  had  more  completely  under- 
stood the  ways  in  which  human  hearts  and  minds  are 
to  be  touched  and  convinced  so  as  to  change  their  en- 


122  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

tire  nature.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  as  regards 
the  practical  working  knowledge  of  human  nature  and 
the  way  in  which  it  is  to  be  influenced  and  changed, 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  greatest  social  psychologist  of  his- 
tory. He  had  made  himself  such  by  long  and  patient 
study  during  a  period  of  from  eighteen  to  twenty  years 
of  preparation. 

V.    Love:  Welfare  of  Humanity:  Golden  Rule 

The  third  great  principle  laid  down  by  Jesus  for  the 
conduct  of  life  is  love:  devotion  to  the  w^elfare  of  others. 

This  principle  had  been  enunciated  by  all  of  the  great 
religious  teachers,  but  never  before  had  it  been  so  em- 
phasized as  by  Jesus.  The  Buddha  had  taught  kind- 
ness and  mercy,  and  among  the  Buddhists  even  to-day 
it  is  not  uncommon  for  people  to  make  gifts  to  the 
conmaunity,  such  as  bridges  or  rest  houses  by  the  way- 
side, or  public  buildings,  in  order  "to  acquire  merit." 
Likewise  Confucius  and  the  Hebrew  lawgivers  teach 
mercy  and  kindness  and  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  the 
community.  Nowhere,  however,  in  all  literature  have 
we  quite  the  same  range  of  touching  human  sympathy 
as  is  expressed  in  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan, 
or  quite  the  same  direct  guide  to  human  action  as  in 
the  Golden  Rule.  Most  Christian  teachers,  indeed, 
have  spoken  of  this  principle  of  love  as  the  cardinal 
principle  of  Jesus'  teachings,  often  as  if  it  were  almost 
the  sole  principle  of  social  import;  whereas,  far-reaching 
as  it  is,  the  principle  was  not  so  new  in  social  science 
as  that  of  individual  responsibility. 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  123 

The  social  value  of  this  principle  is  most  clearly 
demonstrated  by  recognizing  the  fact  that  Jesus  ap- 
parently made  the  welfare  of  humanity  the  basis  of 
his  ethical  teachings,  his  test  of  right  and  wrong. 
And  that  is  perhaps,  on  the  whole,  the  best  test  that 
can  be  applied  to  individual  or  social  action  to-day. 
Much  has  been  said  by  Christian  teachers,  and  by  the 
teachers  of  oth-^r  religions,  of  the  Law  of  God;  and  the 
test  of  what  is  right  and  wrong  has  seemed  to  be  either 
some  specific  commands,  such  as,  for  example,  the  Ten 
Commandments  of  the  Hebraic  law,  or  other  pronounce- 
ment of  priestly  doctrine;  but  Jesus,  in  his  interpre- 
tation of  the  ancient  law,  sought  for  a  fundamental 
principle  which  was  to  be  applied  to  individual  human 
action  by  the  individual  himself.  In  his  declaration, 
"The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man  and  not  man  for  the 
Sabbath,"  in  his  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  in  his 
condemnation  of  the  Pharisees  for  their  hard-hearted- 
ness,  in  his  enunciation,  indeed,  of  the  Golden  Rule 
itself,  we  find  various  ways  in  which  the  truth  that 
whatever  tends  to  benefit  humanity  is  right  and  what- 
ever tends  to  injure  humanity  is  wrong  is  made  the 
basis  of  judgment. 

This  principle  of  Jesus  would  generally,  I  believe,  be 
accepted  for  the  basis  of  individual  action.  Of  course, 
customs,  habits,  laws  have  so  passed  judgment  upon 
most  of  our  every-day  acts  that  we  do  not  need  to 
stop  to  argue  with  ourselves  the  question  as  to  whether 
stealing  or  killing  other  human  beings  or  bearing  false 
witness  are  for  the  benefit  of  humanity  or  for  its  detri- 


124  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

ment.  We  know  it,  we  feel  it;  custom  has  made  it 
instinctive;  and  yet  our  laws  make  very  clear  the  dis- 
tinction between  murder  and  the  execution  of  the 
death  sentence  or  killing  in  self-defense;  and  the  basis 
of  the  distinction  is,  of  course,  the  welfare  of  the  com- 
munity. 

Many  writers,  however,  especially  perhaps  some  of 
the  leading  German  jurists,  have  drawn  a  sharp  dis- 
tinction between  personal  ethics  and  governmental 
ethics,  arguing  that  though  it  may  be  wrong  for  an 
individual  to  lie,  it  is  entirely  proper  for  a  govern- 
ment to  deceive,  if  by  so  doing  its  own  immediate  wel- 
fare can  be  promoted.  Along  the  same  line  is  argued 
the  justification  for  wars,  seizure  of  territory  of  weaker 
peoples,  and  other  acts  of  government  that  throughout 
all  history  have  been  assumed  to  be  right,  or  passed 
over  with  little  condemnation. 

On  this  point  again  there  can  be  no  question  that 
this  broad  principle,  the  promotion  of  the  welfare  of 
humanity  at  large,  comes  the  nearest  of  any  test  of 
right  and  wrong  that  has  been,  probably  that  can  be, 
discovered.  This  makes  no  distinction  between  under- 
lying principles  of  governmental  ethics,  personal  ethics, 
international  ethics.  The  differences,  whatever  they 
may  be,  lie  in  the  different  influences  that  are  brought 
to  bear  by  the  acts  of  an  individual  in  his  private  and 
in  his  governmental  capacities.  It  is,  however,  not 
difficult  ordinarily  to  make  the  distinction. 

Whatever  the  varying  conditions  may  have  been 
that  guided  governmental  actions  in  the  upward  prog- 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  125 

ress  of  civilization,  the  best  test,  perhaps,  of  national 
morality  and  of  a  higher  civilization  is  that  as  time 
goes  on  the  principles  which  should  guide  individual 
action  in  a  society  shall  more  and  more  become  the 
rules  by  which  governmental  action  within  the  society 
and  also  in  international  relations  shall  be  guided. 
The  higher  civilizations,  in  their  dealings  with  one 
another,  and  especially  in  their  dealings  with  weaker 
peoples,  should  base  their  actions  more  and  more 
upon  truth,  development  of  the  individual  through  re- 
sponsibility, the  Golden  Rule. 

VI.  These  Principles  of  Action  Produce 
Democratic  Government 

If  we  review  hastily  these  principles  of  personal  ac- 
tion which  are  really  the  summary  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  Jesus'  social  teachings,  we  note  that  in  enun- 
ciating these  principles  Jesus  laid  the  foundations  of 
democracy.  He  dealt  the  death-blow  to  imperialism, 
even  to  a  benevolent  despotism.  When  the  mature 
individuals  in  a  community  deal  truthfully  and  frankly 
with  one  another,  when  they  feel  a  keen  sense  of  indi- 
vidual responsibility  for  their  actions,  judging  those 
actions  with  independence  of  spirit,  with  tolerance  for 
the  same  independent  judgment  on  the  part  of  others, 
with  the  consciousness  that  they  must  study  and  pre- 
pare themselves  for  the  bearing  of  their  responsibilities, 
and  when  they  also  feel  that  they  must  devote  them- 
selves with  all  that  they  have  and  all  that  they  are  to 
the  promotion  of  the  welfare  of  the  community  at 


126  Christianity  and  Problems  0/  To-day 

large,  we  have  the  ideal  democracy.  Is  not  this  true  ? 
I  have  asked  many  thoughtful  students  of  government 
whether  or  not  these  principles  are  the  fundamental 
principles  of  popular  self-government,  and  whether 
any  other  principles  besides  these  are  needed  to  be 
brought  into  play  in  order  to  give  us  popular  self-gov- 
ernment of  the  best  type;  and  so  far  I  have  found  no 
one  who  denied  these  to  be  the  principles  of  democracy 
or  who  had  anything  to  add  to  these  principles.  If, 
then,  these  are  the  principles  of  Christianity,  if  these 
are  the  complete  summary  of  Jesus'  fundamental 
teachings,  is  it  not  the  fact  that  Jesus,  although  not 
dealing  directly  with  government,  is  nevertheless  the 
founder  of  democracy,  of  self-government?  It  is  cer- 
tainly true  that  before  his  day  the  various  attempts 
that  had  been  made  toward  the  establishment  of  re- 
publics or  of  democratic  governments  did  not  recognize 
the  worth  of  the  common  man.  In  all  of  the  earlier 
attempts  that  had  been  made  there  was  a  substantial 
equality  of  rights  among  the  so-called  better  classes  in 
the  community;  but  the  great  masses  of  the  serving 
classes,  of  the  working  classes,  if  not  slaves  were  at 
least  not  supposed  to  bear  the  responsibilities  of  guid- 
ing the  affairs  of  the  community.  Even  in  Great  Brit- 
ain, until  after  the  great  reform  acts  of  the  middle  of 
the  last  century,  there  was  no  real  democracy. 

Moreover,  the  chief  difficulties  in  democracy  arise 
from  the  fact  that  we  do  not  have  in  the  great  mass  of 
our  citizens  in  any  community  by  any  means  a  univer- 
sal acceptance  of  these  principles  of  Jesus.    Although 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  127 

these  are  the  principles  of  the  ideal  democracy,  not 
until  these  principles  are  accepted  and  acted  upon  by 
the  great  masses  of  individuals  in  the  community  shall 
we  have  a  perfect  democracy.  To  improve  our  gov- 
ernments, therefore,  if  we  are  to  accept  Jesus'  guidance 
in  our  actions,  our  efforts  should  be  devoted  primarily 
not  so  much  to  increasing  the  power  of  individuals  in 
the  community  or  to  weakening  the  power  of  leaders, 
as  to  increasing,  on  the  part  of  our  individual  citizens, 
the  capacity  for  wise,  independent  self-judgment  and 
bearing  of  responsibility  through  increase  of  knowledge 
and  increase  of  the  spirit  of  unselfishness. 

This  leads  us  naturally  to  a  brief  consideration  of 
the  principle  of  self-determination  on  the  part  of  na- 
tions and  peoples,  which  has  been  so  much  discussed 
since  the  Great  War.  Perhaps  there  has  been  no  other 
watchword  that  has  been  more  misused  in  its  applica- 
tion to  governments  and  peoples  than  that  of  self- 
determination,  but  if  we  note  carefully  the  way  in 
which  Jesus  applied  these  rules  that  have  been  enun- 
ciated, we  shall  find  the  key  to  a  wise  and  just  appli- 
cation of  this  principle  of  self-determination.  What 
limitations  did  Jesus  place  upon  the  principle  ? 

When  he  said,  "Suffer  the  little  children  to  come 
unto  me;  forbid  them  not;  for  to  such  belongeth  the 
kingdom  of  God"  (Mark  10 :  14,  15);  and  again  (Mark 
9  :  35-37),  "If  any  man  would  be  first,  he  shall  be  last 
of  all,  and  servant  of  all.  And  he  took  a  little  child, 
and  set  him  in  the  midst  of  them:  and  taking  him  in 
his  arms,  he  said  unto  them.  Whosoever  shall  receive 


128  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

one  of  such  little  children  in  my  name,  receiveth  me: 
and  whosoever  receiveth  me,  receiveth  not  me,  but 
him  that  sent  me" — he  clearly  had  m  mind  the  humility 
and  receptivity  of  children,  their  eagerness  to  learn, 
and  had  no  thought  at  all  that  they  should  decide  for 
themselves  what  to  do.  He  seems  throughout  his 
teachings  quite  in  accord  with  the  teachings  of  Paul  in 
his  epistles  to  the  Ephesians  and  Colossians,  that  chil- 
dren should  obey  their  parents,  and  that  it  took  mature 
men,  measuring  up  to  the  spiritual  stature  of  Chris- 
tians, to  decide  their  own  beliefs  and  actions.  It  is,  of 
course,  recognized  in  the  laws  and  customs,  as  well  as 
in  the  good  judgment  of  all  peoples,  that  children  are 
not  yet  persons  in  the  legal  sense  of  the  word.  The 
same  principle  applies  to  weak-minded  individuals. 
One  of  the  great  problems  of  self-government  is  to  de- 
termine at  what  age  or  at  what  stage  of  development 
people  are  to  be  considered  competent  to  make  deci- 
sions for  themselves,  and,  in  governmental  matters,  for 
other  members  of  the  community.  In  America  we 
have  assumed  that  at  twenty-one  years  of  age  people 
may  properiy  be  asked  to  take  that  responsibility.  In 
some  other  countries  twenty-five  years  is  assumed  as 
the  proper  age.  In  most  countries,  before  people  are 
allowed  to  act  as  representatives  to  pass  on  the  making 
of  laws,  a  still  more  advanced  age,  and,  in  consequence, 
a  greater  degree  of  maturity,  is  required. 

What  is  only  good  judgment  and  common  sense  as 
applied  to  children  is  also  good  judgment  and  common 
sense,  and  good  Christianity,  in  accordance  with  the 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  129 

teachings  of  both  Jesus  and  St.  Paul,  as  applied  to  cer- 
tain peoples  where  the  majority  are  so  untrained  or 
incapable  that  they  cannot  judge.  It  is  not  at  all  a 
question  of  social  status.  The  extreme  radical  change 
that  Jesus  made  was  in  that  field.  Jesus  taught  that 
there  were  no  people  born  better  than  others,  or  in  a 
ruling  class,  who  could  remove  responsibility  from  any 
individual  for  deciding  his  own  beliefs  and  determining 
his  own  actions.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  rea- 
son for  thinking  that  Jesus  in  any  particular  fostered 
the  doctrine  that  any  individual  or  small  group  of 
whatever  degree  of  immaturity  of  judgment  should 
under  all  circumstances  be  allowed  to  determine  their 
own  acts  or  their  own  form  of  government,  and  espe- 
cially to  control  their  relations  with  other  peoples. 

A  second  limitation  upon  the  privilege  of  self-deter- 
mination is,  of  course,  the  rights  and  the  welfare  of 
others.  While  we  are  to  decide  our  own  actions  in 
accordance  with  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  we  should  impose 
upon  ourselves  the  limitation  that  we  will  not  act  con- 
trary to  the  interests  of  others  or  contrary  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  community,  and  this  same  principle  would 
properly  apply  in  any  democratic  community  or  state. 
While  it  is  right  for  them  to  seek  their  own  develop- 
ment, people  should  avoid  injury  to  other  peoples  or 
races,  and  resistance  to  such  injury  is  justified.  Jesus 
did  not  hesitate  to  denounce  the  Pharisees  for  their  un- 
just treatment  of  others,  nor  to  expel  forcibly  from  the 
Temple  those  who  were  desecrating  its  precincts  to  the 
detriment  of  the  faithful. 


130  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

I  have  heard  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  cited 
by  extreme  pacifists  as  an  argument  against  all  war, 
and  have  heard  Jesus  characterized  as  "The  Great 
Pacifist."  In  addition  to  the  present  parable,  I  have 
sometimes  wished  that  he  could  have  left  us  another 
in  which  he  depicted  the  scene  a  little  earlier,  just  at 
the  time  when  the  w^ayfarer  was  struggling  in  the 
hands  of  the  robbers.  The  priest  might  well  have 
shrunk  from  a  contest.  Pleading  to  himself  that  it 
would  ill  become  one  of  his  cloth  to  be  involved  in  a 
wayside  brawl,  he  would  pass  by  on  the  other  side. 
The  Levite,  too,  arguing  to  liis  conscience  that  the 
victim  was  a  stranger  to  whom  he  was  under  no  obliga- 
tion, and  that,  at  any  rate,  the  robbers  were  too  many, 
would  pass  by  on  the  other  side.  But  the  Good  Sa- 
maritan, seeing  only  a  neighbor — though  a  total  stran- 
ger— in  dire  distress  at  the  hands  of  scoundrels,  would 
hurl  himself  like  a  bolt  into  the  fray.  And  if,  after 
deadly  conflict,  he  too  lay  robbed,  bleeding,  and  sore 
by  his  neighbor's  side,  there  would  be  no  glimmer  of 
regret  in  his  heart;  but  as  each  helped  the  other  to 
bind  up  his  wounds,  their  hearts  would  rejoice  that 
each  had  found  a  friend  in  a  good  fight  for  the  right. 

The  main  difficulty  in  the  application  of  the  princi- 
ple of  self-determination  is,  of  course,  the  apparent 
conflict  of  interests  and  benefits  that  occurs  at  times. 
Judgment  should  be  rendered  as  nearly  as  possible  by 
a  consensus  of  opinion  of  the  least  prejudiced  and  best 
informed  and  most  unselfish,  disinterested  observers. 
It  is  in  exactly  this  field  that  we  look  forward  to  an 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  131 

ultimate  international  court  of  nations  to  which  such 
questions  as  are  formally  justiciable  may  be  put,  and  to 
a  council  of  nations  that  may  discuss,  determine,  and 
formulate  the  opinions  of  the  nations  on  questions  that 
are  political  in  their  nature.  We  may  look  forward  to 
a  time  when  such  a  decision  rendered  by  such  a  court  or 
such  a  council  will  be  practically  self-enforcing  through 
the  public  opinion  of  the  world.  In  the  meantime, 
however,  it  should  be  a  matter  for  the  consciences  of 
the  statesmen  of  all  of  the  different  nations  to  settle 
this  question  with  the  spirit  of  Jesus  and  in  the  light 
of  experience.  Most  thoughtful  people  of  the  present 
day,  if  their  interests  are  not  immediately  concerned, 
would  concede  that  the  welfare  of  humanity  and  the 
progressive  development,  not  only  materially  but  also 
intellectually  and  spiritually,  of  the  most  backward  in- 
dividuals and  peoples  would  be  furthered  by  limiting 
the  extent  to  which  they  may  determine  their  ovm. 
actions,  especially  so  far  as  they  concern  other  peoples 
through  international  relations.  Heretofore  such  ques- 
tions have  been  decided  by  the  nations  that  had  the 
greater  power  to  enforce  their  will.  Cases  could  be 
selected  where  the  nation  from  whom  the  right  of  self- 
determination  has  been  taken  was  probably  better  able 
to  judge  wisely  its  own  acts  than  the  dominating  power. 
On  the  other  hand,  probably  far  more  instances  could 
be  cited  where  the  limitation  for  a  time  of  the  self-de- 
termining power  in  international  matters  has  been 
beneficial  to  humanity.  The  right  principle  and  the 
Christian  principle  would  seem  to  be  that  an  effort 


132  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

should  be  made  to  develop  the  capacity  for  self-deter- 
mination on  the  part  of  backward  peoples,  and  to  with- 
hold the  power  of  self-determination  in  matters  which 
involve  deeply  the  interests  of  others,  mitil  such  self- 
determining  capacity  has  been  developed  to  a  degree 
to  make  its  use  safe  for  other  peoples  and  nations. 
Doubtless  as  a  practical  matter  for  some  time  to  come 
it  will  be  the  will  of  the  stronger  power  in  individual 
instances  that  will  settle  this  question  of  the  degree  of 
self-determination  that  shall  be  granted  and  its  appli- 
cation; but  eventually  the  world  court  or  council  which 
has  been  mentioned  may  determine  such  matters  in 
default  of  agreement  among  the  peoples  immediately 
concerned. 


VII.    Problems  of  the  Far  East 

With  the  preceding  discussion  of  principles  as  mani- 
fested by  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  may  con- 
sider briefly  their  application  to  the  problems  of  the 
Far  East  and  the  limitation  of  armaments. 

The  three  countries  most  concerned  are  Great  Brit- 
ain, the  United  States,  and  Japan.  Of  these,  the  first 
two  claim  to  be  Christian,  and  should  therefore  be  will- 
ing to  follow  the  teachings  of  the  Founder  of  their 
religion.  The  third  claims  that  her  aim  is  to  take  the 
best  from  the  civilization  of  the  other  two,  and,  wher- 
ever possible,  to  improve  it.  If  all  of  them  are  really 
sincere  and  a  correct  analysis  has  been  made  of  Jesus' 
teachings,  they  may  well  prove  to  be  satisfactory  bases 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  133 

for  discussion  and  agreement.  If  the  powers  can  agree, 
the  conference  will  be  a  success. 

All  of  the  problems  of  the  Far  East,  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  United  States,  seem  to  be  centred  about 
Japan,  her  acquisitions  of  territory,  her  claims  regard- 
ing her  interests  and  rights,  her  attitude  toward  other 
nations  and  the  proper  methods  of  procedure;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  from  the  point  of  view  of  Japan,  one 
might  in  like  manner  assert  that  the  problems  of  the 
Far  East  seem  to  be  centred  about  the  United  States, 
her  acquisitions  of  territory,  her  claims  regarding  her 
interests  and  rights,  her  attitude  toward  other  nations, 
and  the  proper  methods  of  procedure. 

It  is  frequently  stated  by  those  who  are  discussing 
the  nature  of  the  forthcoming  conference  that  the 
great  problem  of  the  Far  East  is  China,  and  minor 
problems  are  Siberia  and  the  islands  of  the  Pacific; 
while  still  others  speak  of  immigration  and  racial 
equality  as  the  most  important  problems  to  be  dis- 
cussed. It  will  readily  be  seen,  from  our  point  of 
view,  that  if  we  eliminate  Japan  as  an  active  factor, 
the  other  problems  would  not  be  of  so  serious  import 
for  international  discussion,  especially  in  connection 
with  the  possible  limitation  of  armaments;  whereas 
from  the  point  of  view  of  Japan,  if  the  United  States 
were  eliminated  as  an  important  factor,  such  discus- 
sions would  be  of  minor  import.  She  could  take  care 
of  the  difficulties  herself.  There  seems  to  be  a  conflict 
of  views  mainly  between  Japan  and  the  United  States, 
with  Great  Britain  and,  to  a  less  degree,  the  other 


134  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

nations  invited  as  vitally  interested  umpires,  whose 
voices  will  largely  decide,  and  who  wish  not  to  offend 
either  Japan  or  America. 

A  complete  discussion  of  these  vital  problems  would 
involve  careful  and  sympathetic  consideration  of  ques- 
tions that  differ  widely  in  form  and  nature,  yet  may 
be  greatly  simplified  by  the  application  of  these  princi- 
ples of  Jesus  to  their  solution.  Such  a  study  would 
involve  a  sketch  of  the  political  history  of  the  Far  East 
since  the  China-Japan  War,  with  notice  taken  of  earlier 
conflicts  over  China,  giving  motives  and  methods  of 
aggressions  of  various  nations  with  their  results;  the 
marvellous  expansion  of  Japan  in  both  territory  and 
influence,  with  a  judgment  as  to  her  real  needs  for  ter- 
ritory and  materials  and  consideration  of  satisfying 
these  needs;  and  the  present  and  probable  effects 
upon  the  world  of  the  continuation  of  her  policies;  a 
similar  study  of  the  acquisition  of  territory  and  ex- 
tension of  influence  in  the  Far  East  of  the  United 
States,  Great  Britain,  and  the  other  nations,  and  the 
probable  future  effects  of  the  continuation  of  their  poli- 
cies— all  to  be  judged  in  the  light  of  these  principles  of 
Jesus:  truth;  development  of  personality  of  individual 
human  beings;  the  Golden  Rule,  care  for  the  welfare  of 
humanity  as  the  test  of  right  and  wrong. 

To-day  I  may  only  indicate  the  method  and  nature 
of  such  study,  and  let  each  follow  out  the  thought  to 
a  conclusion. 

1.  Truth:  While  every  care  should  be  taken  to  be 
courteous  and  considerate  and  just  to  all,  if  Jesus' 
principles  are  right  the  future  policies  of  the  nations 


Tim  Teachings  of  Jesus  135 

must  discourage  militaristic  methods  of  deceit  and 
trickery,  propaganda  of  falsehood,  secret  diplomacy 
that  is  misleading,  and  the  employment  of  force  or 
threats,  except  in  war.  This  can  best  be  done  by  tak- 
ing action  which  shows  that  such  methods  do  not  suc- 
ceed and  will  not  be  tolerated  in  international  rela- 
tions. An  "open-door"  policy  freely  entered  into  (and 
this  has  been  repeatedly  affirmed  by  all)  must  be  kept 
by  all,  and,  if  necessary,  enforced  by  joint  action. 
Promises  regarding  territory  and  treaties  entered  into 
freely  must  be  kept,  while  those  extorted  by  force 
should  be  considered  invalid. 

2.  The  spread  of  democracy  in  the  sane  sense  of  the 
word  must  be  recognized  and  encouraged.  World  his- 
tory under  the  teachings  of  Jesus  shows  this  trend,  and 
the  outcome  of  the  World  War  makes  it  clear  that  im- 
perialism cannot  survive.  All  nations  must  recognize 
this  fact,  and  kings  and  emperors  must  retain  their 
thrones  by  becoming  the  leaders  of  their  peoples,  whom 
they  will  train  to  assume  responsibility.  The  nations 
whose  spirit  and  policies  are  most  intelligently  and 
most  sincerely  devoted  to  developing  stable  self-gov- 
ernment among  their  peoples  must  extend  their  influ- 
ence, and  those  with  other  views  must  change  or  their 
governments  will  in  no  long  time  perish.  Again,  it  is 
practically  certain  that  any  policy  that  is  at  variance 
with  this  principle  will  certainly  lead  to  war  in  the  not 
distant  future — not  to  peace.  These  facts  should  have 
influence  in  the  conference  in  determining  future  poli- 
cies. 

3.  The  policy  should  be  encouraged  of  promoting 


136  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

the  welfare  of  weak  and  backward  peoples,  not  by  sel- 
fish exploitation,  but  by  aiding  them  to  fit  themselves 
for  the  responsibilities  of  self-government  in  all  ways 
practicable,  while  not  encouraging  a  movement  toward 
a  weak  independence  that  would  endanger  the  peace 
of  the  world. 

4.  All  these  questions  must  be  handled — if  the  teach- 
ing and  practice  of  Jesus  are  to  be  followed — in  the 
light  of  reason  and  common  sense  and  the  practicable. 
To  attempt  to  reverse  actions  of  generations  ago,  what- 
ever our  views  as  to  their  justice  then,  might  well  do 
more  harm  than  good.  The  annexations  of  Hong 
Kong,  Indo-China,  the  Philippine  Islands,  Corea,  are 
questions  that  cannot  and  ought  not  to  come  before  the 
Washington  conference.  The  ways  in  which  the  differ- 
ent nations  have  administered  those  territories  may  well 
be  factors  in  determining  what  further  opportunities 
should  be  given  to  the  nations  concerned.  On  the  other 
hand,  questions  of  grave  importance  are  still  pending 
and  others  involving  the  same  principles  may  well  arise. 

(a)  All  the  nations  represented  at  the  conference 
have  formally  agreed  to  the  open-door  policy  in  China. 
If  that  policy  has  been  violated  by  any  of  the  powers, 
the  facts  should  be  clearly  brought  out  and  recognized. 
On  the  basis  of  these  facts,  measures  should  be  taken 
to  insure  a  strict  observance  of  that  policy  in  the  fu- 
ture. Presumably  international  inspection  by  inter- 
national commission,  including,  of  course,  China  as  a 
party,  probably  as  chairman,  or  possibly  international 
control,  will  be  needed  in  certain  particulars. 

(6)  The  treaties  between  China  and  Japan  in  1915 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  137 

and  1918  (which  China  claims  were  obtained  by  threats 
and  show  of  force  against  a  friendly  power  in  time  of 
peace)  have  not  been  recognized  by  the  United  States 
as  vaHd  so  far  as  they  concern  the  rights  of  America 
or  American  citizens,  or  the  territorial  integrity  or  the 
sovereignty  of  China,  or  the  principle  of  the  "open 
door."  These  treaties  involve  the  extension  of  power 
and  influence  of  Japan  in  Manchuria,  Inner  Mongolia, 
and  Fukien  province  of  China,  as  well  as  her  official  in- 
fluence with  the  Chinese  Government  and  the  entire 
question  of  Shantung  province  and  Japan's  hold  on 
Kiao  Chow.  The  United  States  Government  as  well 
as  China  have  consistently  refused  to  consider  these 
questions  closed.  They  should  now  be  considered  and 
settled  in  accordance  with  the  principles  laid  down. 
The  truth  should  be  fully  brought  out  and  recognized; 
measures  should  be  taken  looking  toward  the  best  de- 
velopment of  the  peoples  concerned,  so  as  to  fit  them 
for  self-government  in  due  time.  As  fast  as  possible 
they  should  be  given  the  responsibility  of  self-deter- 
mination. If  not  ready  now,  steps  should  be  taken  to 
prevent  them  from  oppression  or  loss  of  their  territory, 
while  they  are  encouraged  to  find  their  way. 

(c)  The  welfare  in  the  long  run  of  the  peoples  con- 
cerned, the  welfare  of  humanity  through  them,  should 
be  the  test  of  right  and  wrong  in  making  these  decisions 
and  working  out  these  plans.  In  case  of  differing  opin- 
ions, based  not  on  self-interest  but  on  sincere  convic- 
tion, if  the  history  of  twenty  centuries  is  to  count,  the 
opinion  should  prevail  of  those  nations  whose  prac- 
tices have  followed  most  nearly  the  principles  of  Jesus. 


138  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

The  same  tests  may  be  applied  to  conditions  in 
Siberia,  to  Yap,  and  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  whose 
status  has  not  yet  been  agreed  to  by  all  the  powers,  and 
to  the  other  problems  raised  by  conditions  in  China. 

Two  questions  more  raised  by  Japan  at  different 
times  may  be  briefly  touched  upon :  Oriental  immigra- 
tion into  Western  countries  and  the  race  problem. 
Can  the  New  Testament  help  on  these  ? 

Japan  claims  that  she  is  already  overpopulated;  that 
the  countries  to  which  her  people  wish  to  go  object  to 
their  coming,  and  that  the  countries  to  which  they 
might  go  (Formosa,  their  own  northern  islands,  Hok- 
kaido and  Saghalien,  Siberia,  Manchuria)  are  not 
suited  to  them.  The  facts  are  naturally  that  they 
wish  to  go  to  countries  whose  standards  of  living  are 
higher  than  theirs.  Then  they  have  the  advantage  in 
competition.  But  such  advantage  is  at  the  expense 
of  those  countries,  whose  standards  will  be  lowered. 
They  do  not  wish  to  go  to  countries  whose  standards 
are  lower  than  theirs.  The  advantage  in  competition 
would  then  be  against  them,  as  experience  in  Corea 
and  Manchuria  has  shown,  and  they  must  lower  their 
standards  to  succeed.  That  they  are  naturally  un- 
willing to  do.  For  the  same  reason  they  exclude  Chi- 
nese and  Corean  laborers  from  Japan  in  actual  prac- 
tice.   In  my  judgment  they  are  wise  in  so  doing.^ 

^A  few  facts  should  be  kept  in  mind:  (a)  Some  Japanese 
writers  as  well  as  foreigners  claim  that  Japan  is  not  at  all  over- 
populated  now,  considering  that  she  is  becoming  an  industrial 
nation.  Japan  proper  has  394  inhabitants  to  the  square  mile; 
England  and  Wales,  618;  Belgium,  665;  Netherlands,  534;  Italy, 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  139 

It  is  the  common  economic  conflict  of  standards  of 
living  where  the  fittest,  in  the  sense  of  the  ones  who 
will  produce  the  most  at  the  lowest  rates,  because  they 
have  diligence  and  thrift,  and  are  willing  to  live  on 
lower  standards,  survive,  and  those  who  insist  upon 
higher  standards  must  go.  It  is  perfectly  evident,  and 
to  my  mind  entirely  proper  and  in  strict  accord  with 
the  spirit  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  that  every  effort 
should  be  made  to  maintain  the  higher  standards  to 
the  utmost  extent  possible,  and  that  the  methods  of 
competition  that  should  be  admitted  in  connection 
with  the  principles  of  expansion  should  be  those  which 
would  further  the  welfare  of  the  populations,  includ- 
ing the  opportunities  for  developing  intellectually,  and 
gradually  exercising  more  and  more  of  a  capacity  for 
a  self-determination  of  policies.  This  would  not  ex- 
clude Japanese  from  Corea  or  Manchuria,  if  they  will 
deal  fairly  with  those  peoples.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
nations  that  object  to  the  admission  of  the  Japanese 
on  the  grounds  that  their  coming  in  large  numbers  will 
lower  their  standards  of  living  and  introduce  a  type  of 

332;  Germany,  325.  (6)  Japan  has  urged  claims  on  Shantung 
of  which  the  density  of  population  is  525  to  the  square  mile.  Of 
course  she  has  not  desired  to  settle  that  country,  only  to  con- 
trol and  manage  its  mines,  railroads,  ports,  commerce — and 
this  would  give  practically  poUtical  control,  (c)  Certain  writers 
claim  that  the  Japanese  soil  is  not  now  properly  cultivated  to 
produce  the  best  results  agriculturally.  Large  preserves  are  held 
out  of  cultivation  in  crown  lands,  as  was  done  earher  in  Great 
Britain  and  Germany.  The  people  are  expert  in  rice  culture  and 
wish  to  eat  rice.  They  might  use  to  excellent  advantage  much 
other  land  than  they  do,  land  entirely  suitable  for  other  food 
production,  though  not  for  rice. 


140  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

civilization  that  on  the  whole  they  feel  to  be  lower 
than  their  own,  are  not  therefore  unchristian,  provided 
proper  methods  of  exclusion  are  followed.  Japan  is 
likewise  fully  justified  in  adhering  to  her  policy  of  ex- 
cluding from  her  own  territory  those  laborers,  espe- 
cially Chmese  and  Coreans,  who,  if  allowed  to  come  in 
large  numbers,  because  of  their  lower  standards  of  liv- 
ing, would  lower  the  standards  of  living  and  the  oppor- 
tunity, in  consequence,  for  cultural  development  of 
the  Japanese  people. 

As  the  Japanese  Government  has  insisted  upon  lim- 
iting the  competition  of  some  foreign  corporations  that 
were  obtaining  too  much  control  of  certain  industries 
in  Japan  (such  as  the  American  Tobacco  Company), 
and  insisted  upon  rigid  control  of  the  foreign  companies 
doing  business  there,  so  it  seems  fully  justified  for  the 
Chinese  and  those  sympathetic  with  them  to  object 
to  the  dominating  control  by  the  Japanese,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  natives  and  of  foreign  competitors,  of  the 
territory  of  Kiao  Chow,  of  the  administration  of  the 
South  Manchurian  Railway,  if  the  charges  of  discrimi- 
nation are  true,  and  of  the  methods  of  administration 
of  Corea.  I  am  not  raising  now  the  question  of  the 
legal  right  in  any  of  these  cases,  but  of  the  Christian 
principle  of  improving  the  welfare  of  the  masses  of  the 
peoples  of  the  countries  concerned  through  the  oppor- 
tunities for  developing  to  the  highest  degree  the  indi- 
viduals. 

Going  now  to  the  question  of  what  the  Japanese  can 
do  to  maintain  their  own.  standards  and  improve  them, 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  141 

unless  they  are  allowed  to  enter  freely  in  large  numbers 
the  territories  of  those  whose  standards  of  living  are 
higher,  three  suggestions  may  be  made: 

First,  they  may  become,  at  home,  as  they  have 
already  shown  their  capacity  to  become,  more  of  an  in- 
dustrial nation,  in  which  case  the  increase  in  the  density 
of  the  population  would  be  an  advantage  in  competi- 
tion rather  than  a  disadvantage,  and  in  which — owing 
to  the  rapid  improvement  of  industrial  conditions — 
the  standards  of  living  could  be  improved  rather  than 
lowered.  The  best  illustrations  of  the  success  of  this 
policy  are  found  in  Great  Britain  and  Germany,  both 
of  which  improved  very  rapidly  with  an  increasing 
density  of  population. 

The  second  suggestion  is  that  in  the  countries  readily 
open  to  Japanese  immigration,  where  the  population  is 
not  so  dense  as  in  Japan,  i.  e.,  in  certain  parts  of  Corea 
and  ]Manchuria,  in  Hokkaido,  and  in  other  countries 
that  might  be  mentioned  (other  parts  of  China  and 
Siberia),  a  similar  policy  might  well  be  followed.  This 
does  not  mean  political  control,  which  is  not  necessary, 
but  Japanese  immigration.  If  they  will  undertake 
economic  and  industrial  development,  there  will  be 
room  for  a  large  and  increasing  population. 

A  third  suggestion  has  to  do  with  the  very  rapid  in- 
crease in  the  population  of  Japan,  owing  to  the  high 
birth-rate.  It  is  well  known  that  in  countries  where 
the  standard  of  living  is  rapidly  rising,  the  birth-rate 
rapidly  falls.  This  is  a  normal  consequence  of  the  in- 
creased care  for  their  children,  theu*  training  and  their 


142  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

education,  on  the  part  of  parents,  with  their  own  im- 
proved standards  of  living  and  the  desire  to  give  to 
their  children  the  best  which  is  possible.  If  Japan  im- 
proves her  industrial  standards,  unless  there  are  some 
special  efforts  made  either  through  religious  influence 
or  governmental  influence  to  the  contrary,  the  birth- 
rate will  normally  decrease.  A  militaristic  nation 
wishes  a  high  birth-rate,  an  industrial  nation  gets  a 
low  rate.  Already  there  has  been  discussed  in  Japan, 
by  their  most  thoughtful  citizens,  the  question  of  birth 
control  and  the  inculcation  of  the  knowledge  regarding 
sane  and  proper  methods  of  birth  control  among  the 
more  ignorant  classes  of  the  population.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion that  may  well  be  given  thoughtful  consideration 
not  only  in  Japan  but  in  other  countries. 

It  is,  however,  urged  frequently  that  the  Japanese 
cannot  expand  industrially  unless  they  are  in  a  posi- 
tion to  secure  the  raw  materials  for  their  industries 
that  are  not  produced  in  Japan  itself.  This  is  the 
usual  defense  that  is  given  for  many  of  the  aggressive 
acts  of  Japan  in  securing  control  of  coal  and  iron  mines 
in  various  parts  of  China.  Other  nations,  such  as 
France,  Great  Britain,  the  United  States,  have  im- 
ported large  quantities  of  the  essentials  for  industrial 
development,  such  as  the  raw  materials  mentioned, 
and  petroleum  and  food-supplies,  without  feeling  the 
necessity  of  political  control.  For  decades  the  popu- 
lation of  Great  Britain,  it  has  been  known,  could  not 
survive  many  months  without  the  importation  of  large 
quantities  of  foodstuffs,  while  her  cotton  industry  has 


The  Teachings  of  Jesiis  143 

been  dependent  upon  the  United  States  for  its  raw 
material  for  many  decades.  There  would  be  no  objec- 
tion whatever  to  Japan  importing  coal  and  iron  ore 
and  other  products  from  China  in  as  large  quantities 
as  she  needed  in  the  ordinary  course  of  business  for  the 
support  of  her  industries;  and  if  her  policy  were  an  in- 
dustrial one  rather  than  a  politically  imperialistic  one, 
her  industries  would  be  as  safe  as  are  those  of  Great 
Britain.  They  would  be  much  safer  than  during  the 
last  years,  when  their  acts  have  produced  the  Chinese 
boycott. 

From  the  viewpoint  of  the  United  States,  the  diffi- 
culty in  the  Japanese  expansion  has  been  the  apparent 
insistence  on  the  part  of  her  friends  that  she  must  have 
for  her  protection  a  political  control  over  raw  materials 
while  her  competitors  along  certain  lines  are  satisfied 
with  industrial  access  to  raw  materials;  and  also  her 
insistence  upon  forcing  her  people  into  competition 
where  they  would  lower  the  standards  of  living  of  other 
nations  w^hen  they  might  readily  find  plenty  of  oppor- 
tunity for  work  at  higher  standards,  though  it  would 
require  capital,  to  the  benefit  of  not  only  themselves 
but  of  the  populations  who  would  welcome  them. 

VIII.    Racial  Equality 

These  considerations  bring  up  also,  as  the  Japanese 
Government  itself  brought  up  at  the  Paris  Peace  Con- 
ference and  frequently  elsewhere,  the  questions  of 
racial  equality  and  the  statement  so  frequently  made 


144  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

that  any  discrimination  between  races,  by  immigration 
laws,  for  example,  is  unchristian. 

It  is  highly  important  that  we  understand  with  the 
greatest  clearness  the  spirit  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  in 
connection  with  the  question  of  race  and  race  equality. 
At  the  beginning  of  Jesus'  ministry  he  apparently  felt 
that  his  message  was  first  and  chiefly  to  the  Jews. 
That  was  natural,  and  quite  possibly  it  appeared  the 
most  expedient  course  for  the  rapid  spread  of  his  vital 
principles  of  living.  There  can  be,  however,  no  doubt, 
as  sho'WTi  for  example  in  the  parable  of  the  Good 
Samaritan  and  in  the  spirit  of  his  teachings  through- 
out, that  Jesus  believed  and  taught  that  all  individuals 
of  whatever  race  were  equally  precious  in  the  sight  of 
God,  and  that  all  would  be  equally  citizens  in  his  king- 
dom if  they  possessed  and  manifested  his  spirit  as 
shown  in  his  life  and  teachings.  It  is  no  less  clear, 
however,  that  with  his  marvellous  insight  into  the 
realities  of  life,  he  recognized  as  accurately  and  com- 
pletely as  any  thinker  possibly  can,  the  differences  be- 
tween classes,  professions,  sects,  and  races,  and  the 
influence  of  these  differences  upon  social  life.  Samari- 
tans, Pharisees,  Sadducees,  Jews,  and  Gentiles  are  rec- 
ognized as  different  tj-pes,  to  be  dealt  with  according 
to  their  differences  in  type.  In  other  words,  Jesus 
recognized  social  facts  as  they  were  and  acted  in  ac- 
cordance with  those  facts,  so  as  best  to  improve  the 
welfare  of  all.  This  is  the  spirit  of  his  teachings.  No 
sane,  intelligent  person  denies  the  fact  that  the  differ- 
ences between  Negroes,  Japanese,  Jews,  Anglo-Saxons, 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  145 

Arabs,  Chinese,  Hindus,  Hottentots,  are  very  marked. 
No  Christian  doubts  that  any  member  of  any  of  these 
races  who  knows  and  follows  the  teachings  of  Jesus  is 
equally  a  Christian,  and  equally  worthy  and  precious 
in  the  sight  of  God;  and  yet  with  their  great  differences 
in  social  and  political  customs  and  habits  of  living,  it  is 
equally  clear  that  if  the  attempt  were  made  for  them 
all  to  mingle  with  each  other  in  close  association,  even 
with  the  best  intentions  and  the  best  Christian  spirit, 
there  would  be  brought  about  inevitably  a  great  loss 
of  effective  energy,  not  to  say  great  friction.  When 
one  considers  still  further  that  the  racial  differences  are 
so  great  in  many  instances  that  there  is  an  instinctive 
objection  on  the  part  of  the  different  races  toward  the 
most  intimate  association  of  married  life,  with  the 
consequent  mingling  of  blood  and  mental  and  tempera- 
mental as  well  as  physical  traits,  it  is  evident  that  from 
any  effort  to  bring  these  races  together  into  close  per- 
sonal association  without  cordial  willingness  on  the  part 
of  both  races  so  to  associate,  there  is  certain  to  arise, 
under  present  conditions  at  any  rate,  friction  that  will 
not  promote  but  will  seriously  retard  the  welfare  of 
both  races  concerned.  If  the  situation  is  such  that  one 
dominates  the  other,  creating  a  servile  race,  that  is 
clearly  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Jesus'  teachings,  and 
the  objection  to  such  association,  if  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity prevails,  would  be  as  great  on  the  part  of  the 
dominating  as  of  the  servile  race. 

Promotion  of  the  welfare  of  all  the  races  is  the  spirit 
of  Jesus'  teachings.     It  is  idle  as  well  as  contrary  to 


146  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

the  teachings  of  Jesus  to  close  one's  eyes  to  facts  of 
race  differences  and  of  the  practical  effects  of  those 
race  differences  upon  the  associations  between  the 
races.  When  those  facts  are  clearly  seen,  it  is  in  ac- 
cord with  the  spirit  of  Jesus'  teachings  so  to  adjust 
those  relations  as  to  promote  the  welfare  of  all,  not  of 
any  one  race  at  the  expense  of  the  others.  Where 
racial  differences  are  so  marked  that  association  is  not 
acceptable  to  both  races,  there  is  no  equality  of  treat- 
ment in  forcing  them  to  associate  or  in  permitting  one 
to  force  itself  upon  the  other.  Equality  of  treatment 
will  demand  that  each  race  or  each  nation  shall  be 
allowed  to  determine  for  itself  what  other  races  shall 
be  admitted  to  close  association. 

It  therefore  seems  that  the  Japanese,  as  well  as  the 
Americans  and  the  Canadians,  have  been  w^se  in  con- 
trolling with  great  care  the  immigration  of  other  races 
and  the  conditions  under  which  business  shall  be  done 
in  their  countries  by  the  peoples  of  other  races  and 
countries.  The  equality  of  the  races  that  should  be 
demanded  is  the  recognition  of  the  equal  right  of  all 
to  determine  for  themselves  without  injuring  the  rights 
or  welfare  of  others  what  method  will  best  promote  the 
interests  of  all  and  the  equal  personal  respect  m  which 
each  individual  of  a  different  race  should  be  held  for 
the  personal  qualities  that  he  himself  possesses  and 
cultivates. 

While  there  is  doubtless  much  race  prejudice,  most 
of  the  pleas  of  the  Japanese  that  their  exclusion  from 
certain  countries  because  of  their  race  is  a  declaration 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  147 

of  a  belief  in  their  inferiority  seems  rather  a  special 
plea  to  arouse  sympathy  and  feeling  than  a  statement 
of  fact.  They  are  excluded  (a)  because  their  industrial 
standards  of  living  are  such  that  their  admission  in 
large  numbers  will  tend  to  injure  the  welfare  of  the 
community  industrially,  and  (6)  because  the  difference 
in  race  is  so  marked  that  their  coming  in  large  numbers 
is  likely  to  promote  social  friction,  and  thus  to  injure 
the  community  politically  and  socially.  In  many  in- 
stances these  effects  might  well  be  brought  about  be- 
cause of  the  recognition  of  their  superior  industrial, 
mental,  and  political  accomplishments  in  certain  lines. 
They  do  well  to  control  their  own  country  so  as  to  pre- 
vent injury  to  it.  It  is  in  accordance  with  the  spirit 
of  Jesus  that  the  same  principle  of  promoting  the  wel- 
fare of  the  community  be  followed  in  other  countries. 
In  saying  these  things  I  wish  not  to  be  misunder- 
stood. I  believe  that  the  greatest  benefits  can  come 
from  close  associations  between  the  nations,  indus- 
trially and  politically,  from  very  frequent  and  close 
associations  in  the  way  of  visiting  and  of  travelling  and 
of  international  co-operation,  so  that  good  traits,  good 
qualities,  noble  attainments  of  each  nation  may  be  as 
widely  spread  as  possible  among  the  other  nations.  I 
believe  also  that  the  Christian  spirit  of  recognition  of 
these  good  qualities  and  of  the  individual  excellencies  of 
all  nations  should  be  recognized.  The  principles  laid 
down  are  made  merely  to  suggest  the  ways  in  which 
the  Christian  spirit  of  co-operation  can  best  be  attained 
by  avoiding  unnecessary  friction  wherever  possible. 


148  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

It  Is  entirely  possible  that  in  the  course  of  time, 
through  the  spread  of  international  culture,  there  will 
be  a  gradual  mingling  of  customs  which  will  promote  a 
much  greater  degree  of  association  than  now,  but  it  is 
certainly  not  only  unwise  but  it  is  unchristian  to  at- 
tempt to  force  association  where  friction  is  bound  to 
be  the  inevitable  result.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  sensi- 
tiveness of  nations  would  lead  them  rather  to  avoid 
making  themselves  the  cause  of  friction  than  to  insist 
upon  creating  it. 

IX.    Methods  of  Japan 

The  chief  problem  of  the  Pacific  so  far  as  Japan  is 
concerned  has  been  caused  by  the  methods  that  the 
Japanese  Government  has  followed  in  promoting  what 
they  believe  with  all  sincerity  to  be  their  interests.  I 
have  no  desire  to  blame  the  Japanese  Government  for 
its  policies.  Under  the  conditions,  it  seems  to  me  that 
they  have  been  normal.  In  1916,  before  the  United 
States  entered  the  Great  War,  but  after  Japan  had  ex- 
pelled the  Germans  from  Shantung,  seized  control  of 
that  territory,  forced  upon  China  the  twenty-one  de- 
mands, and  insisted  under  threat  of  war  upon  the  ac- 
ceptance of  all  of  them  but  the  fifth  group,  while  hold- 
ing that  for  future  consideration,  a  leading  Japanese 
statesman  said  to  me  that  Japan  saw  in  the  Great  War 
an  opportunity  for  promoting  her  own  interests.  He 
advised  the  government  to  select  the  very  best  men  to 
take  advantage  of  that  opportunity  to  make  Japan  as 
great  a  state  as  possible.  It  was  a  normal  spirit  for  a 
Japanese  patriot. 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  149 

Another  Japanese  statesman  of  high  standing  at 
about  the  same  time  said  to  me  that  it  was  natural  that 
the  Japanese  Government  should  be  militaristic:  her 
constitution  had  been  modelled  after  that  of  Germany; 
her  armies  and  the  officers  of  her  armies  had  been 
trained  by  Germans;  her  army  was  modelled  after  the 
German  army;  all  of  the  great  strides  forward  that 
had  made  her  one  of  the  great  powers  instead  of  a 
small  nation  had  been  won  by  armies  (Corea,  control 
over  Manchuria,  the  victory  over  Russia,  and  her  great 
influence  in  the  councils  of  the  nations);  what  more 
natural  than  that  she  should  believe  in  militarism  and 
in  German  methods !  Yet  he  personally  thought  those 
methods  should  be  stopped.  One  need  not  blame  the 
Japanese  statesmen  for  the  policy  which  they  followed, 
but  it  is  our  business  in  this  discussion  to  question 
whether  these  methods  are  now  in  accord  with  the 
teachings  of  Jesus,  and  whether  it  is  incumbent  upon 
the  rest  of  the  world,  especially  the  Christian  world,  to 
encourage  the  continuance  of  those  methods  or  to  put 
what  obstacles  it  can  in  their  way.  I  have  just  given 
the  testimony  of  two  leading  Japanese  statesmen,  tes- 
timony given  to  me  personally.  Many  instances  could 
be  cited  in  the  writings  of  Japanese  statesmen  to  the 
same  effect,  and  no  careful  student  of  history  of  the 
last  twenty  years  will  deny  the  facts. 

The  conference  at  Washington,  in  its  consideration 
of  the  problems  of  the  Far  East,  should  face  facts  in 
the  bold  clear-seeing  spirit  of  Jesus.  Japan  secured  the 
control  of  Corea  by  violation  of  treaties,  deception  of 
the  rest  of  the  world,  and  the  employment  of  force. 


150  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

She  cannot  deny  this  now.  I  think  the  question  of 
Corea  should  not  be  raised  now,  but  it  gives  a  basis  for 
judgment.  These  same  methods  were  followed  in  the 
extension  of  her  control  over  Manchuria  and  in  such 
measure  of  control  as  she  has  in  Shantung  and  other 
parts  of  China.  Japan's  government  of  Corea  has 
doubtless  in  many  respects  been  better  than  the  govern- 
ment by  the  Corean  monarchy,  and  this  in  spite  of  uni- 
versal testimony  that  the  Corean  revolts  of  the  last  year 
have  been  largely  caused  by  the  cruelty  and  despotic 
methods  of  Japanese  administrators.  The  annexation  of 
Corea  by  Japan  was  assented  to  by  all  of  the  leading 
nations  of  the  world  really  because  the  previous  gov- 
ermnent  had  been  so  inefficient  and  corrupt  that  it 
was  believed  that  the  welfare  of  the  nation  would  be 
promoted  by  the  annexation.  Some  of  the  nations 
who  had  promised  in  their  treaties  to  use  their  influ- 
ence to  protect  Corea  against  aggression  from  outside, 
before  acting  should  have  investigated  with  greater 
care  than  they  did  both  the  conditions  surrounding 
the  annexation  and  the  prospects  for  the  future;  but, 
however  that  may  be,  if  the  Japanese  Government 
were  now  to  administer  Corea  with  the  welfare  of  the 
Coreans  in  mind,  with  the  purpose  of  enabling  them  to 
develop  their  own  feeling  of  responsibility  so  that  as 
rapidly  as  possible  they  might  be  granted,  in  their 
internal  affairs  at  any  rate,  the  principle  of  self-deter- 
mination, most  people  would  believe  that  whatever 
the  past  may  have  been,  the  present  and  the  future 
would  be  as  nearly  as  practicable  in  accordance  with 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  151 

the  spirit  of  Jesus*  teachings,  and  would  readily  assent. 
If,  however,  cruelty  and  coercion  continue,  the  deci- 
sion would  be  the  opposite. 

The  other  questions  regarding  the  open  door  in 
Manchuria,  Shantung,  the  Pacific  islands,  have  not 
as  yet  been  universally  accepted  as  settled.  They 
are  questions  still  to  be  settled.  The  methods  that 
have  been  followed  for  years,  practically  up  to  the 
present  time,  have  been  those  of  force  and  fraud  in  the 
countries  themselves,  and,  so  far  as  it  was  practicable, 
deception  by  means  of  propaganda  in  countries  abroad. 
These  statements  are  made,  not  with  any  bitterness 
or  blame,  but  merely  as  facts  necessary  for  judgment, 
based  on  overwhelming  testimony  of  practically  all 
foreigners  who  are  in  a  position  to  know  the  facts  and 
of  the  liberal  Christian  thinkers  among  the  Japanese 
themselves. 

Is  it  for  the  welfare,  morally  and  spiritually,  as  well 
as  industrially,  of  these  countries  and  of  the  rest  of  the 
world,  that  these  practices  be  permitted  to  continue, 
or  would  the  Christian  nations  be  following  more 
clearly  the  teachings  of  Jesus  if  they  were  to  insist  that 
these  methods  should  stop  ?  The  nations  assembled  in 
the  conference  at  Washington  will  follow  the  teachings 
of  Jesus  if  they  give  to  Japan  the  opportunity  to  pro- 
mote the  welfare  of  her  citizens  along  all  lines  that  will 
tend  to  inculcate  in  them  the  spirit  of  the  Christian 
teachings;  and  they  are  also  the  teachings  of  Confucius 
and  the  Buddha  and  other  great  teachers.  We  ought 
not  to   attempt   to   force   Christianity   upon    Japan. 


152  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

That  would  be  unwise,  unjust,  and  unchristian. 
There  should  be  encouraged  among  them  not  only 
mercy  and  justice,  but  also  the  spirit  of  individual 
thinking,  individual  self-determination,  just  as  rapidly 
as  they  can  be  trained  enough  to  accept  that  responsi- 
bility; and  the  welfare  of  the  other  peoples  who  have 
been  under  their  influence  can  certainly  best  be  pro- 
moted by  the  adoption  of  international  policies  en- 
forced by  the  influence  of  the  united  nations  that  shall 
prevent  fraud  and  force  from  triumphing,  but  shall 
secure  to  the  peoples  concerned  and  the  nations  in- 
terested full  and  free  opportunities  for  a  greater  self- 
development. 

X.    Limitation  of  Armaaients 

If  the  spirit  of  Jesus  characterizes  the  conference 
and  if  these  principles  should  be  accepted  by  all,  the 
question  of  the  limitation  of  armaments,  speaking  from 
the  pomt  of  view  of  the  United  States,  would  be  easy. 
It  would  be  merely  a  question  of  proportion  among 
small  numbers.  From  the  point  of  view  of  Japan, 
the  question  may  well  be  asked  whether  the  United 
States  is  willing  to  follow  this  same  spirit.  The  reply 
to  the  question  is  to  be  found  simply  in  the  facing  of 
the  facts.  Are  the  proposals  of  Secretary  Hughes  m 
this  spirit  ?  Has  the  United  States  attempted  to  seize 
unjustly  or  to  oppress  the  native  peoples  in  Cuba,  in 
Porto  Rico,  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  in  the  Philippine 
Islands,  in  China,  or  elsewhere?  The  inefficient 
Cubans  were  given  a  start  toward  self-government, 


The  Teachings  of  Jesus  158 

were  set  upon  their  feet  industrially  and  were  given 
the  opportunity  of  self-determination  as  regards  all 
matters  in  which  they  could  not  injure  the  rights 
or  the  welfare  of  others.  Similar  statements  may  be 
made  with  an  equal  degree  of  truth  with  reference  to 
Porto  Rico,  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  Philippine  Islands, 
China.  While  doubtless  many  individual  mistakes 
may  have  been  made,  the  spirit  of  the  administration 
in  all  these  countries,  by  the  universal  testimony  of 
those  who  know,  including  the  Filipinos  themselves, 
shows  that  the  spirit  has  been  in  accord  with  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus. 

The  Japanese  claim  they  fear,  and  doubtless  in 
many  instances  they  sincerely  do  fear,  that  the  United 
States  is  aggressively  attempting  to  gain  control  of 
the  Pacific.  Any  one  conversant  with  the  facts 
knows  that  it  wishes  simply  the  promotion  of  the 
welfare  of  the  people  concerned,  including  the  welfare 
of  its  own  citizens,  by  fair,  peaceful,  industrial  meth- 
ods, in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  self-determination  of 
the  peoples  themselves  just  so  rapidly  as  they  are 
able  to  assume  that  power. 

XL    Our  Government  in  the  Conference 

What  is  the  position  that  our  government  should 
take  in  the  conference?  While  exercising  all  due 
courtesy  and  exhibiting  every  care  possible  for  the  feel- 
ings of  those  in  attendance,  it  should  still  have  the 
Christian  courage  to  face  the  facts  as  they  have  been 
and  as  they  are,  and  to  insist  upon  it  that  all  the  na- 


154  Christianity  and  Problems  of  To-day 

tions  present  see  those  facts  and,  basing  their  actions 
upon  those  facts,  adopt  so  far  as  possible  the  Christian 
methods  that  will  promote  the  welfare  of  all  the  peo- 
ples of  the  Far  East,  including  Japan,  so  far  as  these 
problems  of  the  Conference  are  concerned.  If  this  is 
done,  it  does  not  mean  that  Japan's  future  or  China's 
future  is  endangered.  It  means  that  every  militaristic 
policy  must  be  abandoned,  but  that  the  industrial, 
social,  and  even  political  future  of  all  the  nations,  in- 
cluding Japan,  will  be  better  secured  than  can  be  pos- 
sible in  any  other  way.  It  will  mean  that  the  welfare 
of  the  inhabitants  of  China,  including  Manchuria  and 
Shantung,  of  Siberia  and  of  the  islands  of  the  Pacific, 
will  be  promoted  by  encouraging  in  every  way  pos- 
sible their  industrial  development,  by  protecting  them 
if  necessary  by  joint  international  influence  against  ag- 
gression from  without,  and  so  far  as  possible  by  en- 
couraging within  those  countries  policies  which  will 
secure  order,  peace,  and  the  development  of  the  in- 
dividuals toward  acquiring  a  capacity  for  self-govern- 
ment which  they  seem  to  have  been  attaining  so  far 
only  to  a  most  unsatisfactory  degree. 

Above  all,  the  guiding  spirit,  with  its  clear-sighted- 
ness and  rigid  adherence  to  practical  conditions  as  they 
are,  should  be  the  spirit  of  peace  and  righteousness. 


THE  BROSS  LECTURES 

The  Bross  Lectures  are  an  outgrowth  of  a  fund 
established  in  1879  by  the  late  William  Bross,  lieuten- 
ant-governor of  Illinois  from  1866  to  1870.  Desiring 
some  memorial  of  his  son,  Nathaniel  Bross,  who  died 
in  1856,  Mr.  Bross  entered  into  an  agreement  with  the 
"Trustees  of  Lake  Forest  University,"  whereby  there 
was  finally  transferred  to  them  the  sum  of  forty  thou- 
sand dollars,  the  income  of  which  was  to  accumulate  in 
perpetuity  for  successive  periods  of  ten  years,  the  ac- 
cumulations of  one  decade  to  be  spent  in  the  following 
decade,  for  the  purpose  of  stimulating  the  best  books 
or  treatises  "on  the  connection,  relation,  and  mutual 
bearmg  of  any  practical  science,  the  history  of  our 
race,  or  the  facts  in  any  department  of  knowledge,  with 
and  upon  the  Christian  Religion."  The  object  of  the 
donor  was  to  "call  out  the  best  efforts  of  the  highest 
talent  and  the  ripest  scholarship  of  the  world  to  illus- 
trate from  science,  or  from  any  department  of  knowl- 
edge, and  to  demonstrate  the  divine  origin  and  the 
authority  of  the  Christian  Scriptures;  and,  further,  to 
show  how  both  science  and  revelation  coincide  and 
prove  the  existence,  the  providence,  or  any  or  all  of 
the  attributes  of  the  only  livmg  and  true  God,  'infi- 

155 


156  The  Bross  Lectures 

nite,  eternal,  and  unchangeable  in  His  being,  wisdom, 
power,  holiness,  justice,  goodness,  and  truth.'" 

The  gift  contemplated  in  the  original  agreement  of 
1879  was  finally  consummated  in  1890.  The  first  dec- 
ade of  the  accumulation  of  interest  having  closed  in 
1900,  the  trustees  of  the  Bross  Fund  began  at  this 
time  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  the  deed  of  gift. 
It  was  determined  to  give  the  general  title  of  "The 
Bross  Library"  to  the  series  of  the  books  purchased 
and  published  with  the  proceeds  of  the  Bross  Fund.  In 
accordance  with  the  express  wish  of  the  donor,  that  the 
"Evidences  of  Christianity"  of  his  "very  dear  friend 
and  teacher,  Mark  Hopkins,  D.D.,"  be  purchased  and 
"ever  numbered  and  known  as  No.  1  of  the  scries," 
the  trustees  secured  the  copyright  of  this  work,  which, 
has  been  republished  in  a  presentation  edition  as  Vol-* 
ume  1  of  the  Bross  Library. 

The  trust  agreement  prescribed  two  methods  by 
wliich  the  production  of  books  and  treatises  of  the 
nature  contemplated  by  the  donor  was  to  be  stimu- 
lated: 

1.  The  trustees  were  empowered  to  offer  one  or  more 
prizes  during  each  decade,  the  competition  for  which 
was  to  be  thrown  open  to  "the  scientific  men,  the 
Christian  philosophers  and  historians  of  all  nations." 
In  accordance  with  this  provision,  a  prize  of  $6,000 
was  offered  in  1902  for  the  best  book  fulfilling  the  con- 
ditions of  the  deed  of  the  gift,  the  competing  manu- 


The  Bros3  Lectures  157 

scripts  to  be  presented  on  or  before  June  1,  1905.  The 
prize  was  awarded  to  the  Reverend  James  Orr,  D.D,, 
professor  of  apologetics  and  systematic  theology  in  the 
United  Free  Church  College,  Glasgow,  for  his  treatise 
on  "The  Problem  of  the  Old  Testament,"  which  was 
published  in  190G  as  Volume  III  of  the  Bross  Library. 
The  second  decennial  prize  of  $6,000  was  awarded  in 
1915  to  the  Reverend  Thomas  James  Thorburn,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  Hastings,  England,  for  his  book  entitled  "The 
Mythical  Interpretation  of  the  Gospels,"  which  has 
been  published  as  Volume  VII  of  the  Bross  Library. 
The  announcement  of  the  conditions  may  be  obtained 
from  the  president  of  Lake  Forest  College, 

2.  The  trustees  were  also  empowered  to  "select  and 
designate  any  particular  scientific  man  or  Christian 
philosopher  and  the  subject  on  which  he  shall  write," 
and  to  "agree  with  him  as  to  the  sum  he  shall  receive 
for  the  book  or  treatise  to  be  written."  Under  this 
provision  the  trustees  have,  from  time  to  time,  invited 
eminent  scholars  to  deliver  courses  of  lectures  before 
Lake  Forest  College,  such  courses  to  be  subsequently 
published  as  volumes  in  the  Bross  Library.  The  first 
course  of  lectures,  on  "Obligatory  Morality,"  was  de- 
livered in  !May,  1903,  by  the  Reverend  Francis  Landey 
Patton,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  Princeton  Theolog- 
ical Seminary.  The  copyright  of  the  lectures  is  now 
the  property  of  the  trustees  of  the  Bross  Fund.  The 
second  course  of  lectures,  on  "The  Bible:  Its  Origin  and 


158  The  Bross  Lectures 

Nature,"  was  delivered  in  IMay,  1904,  by  the  Reverend 
Marcus  Dods,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Exegetical  Theology 
in  New  College,  Edinburgh.  These  lectures  were  pub- 
lished in  1905  as  Voliune  II  of  the  Bross  Library.  The 
third  course  of  lectures,  on  "The  Bible  of  Nature,"  was 
delivered  in  September  and  October,  1907,  by  Mr. 
J.  Arthur  Thomson,  M.A.,  Regius  professor  of  Natural 
History  in  the  University  of  Aberdeen.  These  lectures 
were  published  in  1908  as  Volume  IV  of  the  Bross  Li- 
brary. The  fourth  course  of  lectures,  on  "The  Reli- 
gions of  Modern  Syria  and  Palestine,"  was  delivered  in 
November  and  December,  1908,  by  Frederick  Jones 
Bliss,  Ph.D.,  of  Beirut,  Syria.  These  lectures  are  pub- 
lished as  Volume  V  of  the  Bross  Library.  The  fifth 
course  of  lectures,  on  "The  Sources  of  Religious  In- 
sight," was  delivered  November  13  to  19,  1911,  by 
Professor  Josiah  Royce,  Ph.D.,  of  Harvard  University. 
These  lectures  are  embodied  in  the  sixth  volume.  Vol- 
ume VII,  "The  Mythical  Interpretation  of  the  Gos- 
pels," by  the  Reverend  Thomas  James  Thorburn,  D.D., 
was  published  in  1915.  The  seventh  course  of  lectures, 
on  "The  Will  to  Freedom,"  was  delivered  in  ]\Iay,  1915, 
by  the  Reverend  John  Neville  Figgis,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of 
the  House  of  the  Resurrection,  !Mirfield,  England,  and 
pubHshed  as  Volume  VIII  of  the  series.  In  1916  Pro- 
fessor Henry  Wilkes  Wright,  of  Lake  Forest  College, 
delivered  the  next  course  of  lectures  on  "Faith  Justi- 
fied by  Progress."    These  lectures  are  embodied  in 


The  Bross  Lecture.t  159 

Volume  IX.  In  1921,  the  Reverend  John  P.  Peters, 
Ph.D.,  of  Sewanee,  Tennessee,  delivered  a  course  of 
lectures  on  "Spade  and  Bible."  These  lectures  are 
embodied  in  Volume  X.  The  present  volume  is  com- 
prised of  lectures  delivered  November  3  to  6,  1921, 
before  Lake  Forest  College,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
inauguration  of  the  President. 

Herbert  McComb  Moore, 
President  of  Lake  Forest  University. 

Lake  Forest,  Illinois. 


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